UC-NRLF 


^B    '^^    DMD 


/r/fi^^ 


^M  fc 


LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Accessions  NoOyiO^B  .  Class  No. 


m^^\ 

^^•Jl.^- . 

' 

Hr^r:- 

h^ 

^^%^  ^' 

,/"- 

-'-fr  ^^' 

' 

■  ->'  -  - . 

- 

»'^^.- 

' 

"'.'** 

i^' 

w'lT/ 


,  ■-.V-/"' 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/addressesdeliverOOworlrich 


ADDRESSES 


DELIVERED   BEFORE 


THE  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE 
CONGRESS, 

HELD  IN  CHICAGO,  ILL.,  JUNE  19-23,  1893. 


UNDER  THE  AUSPICES  OF  THE 

WORLD'S  COLUMBIAN  AUXILIARY  OF  THE  WORLD'S 
COLUMBIAN  EXPOSITION. 


OFFICIAL   REPORT. 


^^  0?  !raci 

[TJiriVBESITT] 


CHICAGO : 
THE  RAILWAY  AGE  AND  NORTHWESTERN  RAILROADER. 

1893. 


S^  OZ  3 


mri7BRsiT_ 

WORLD'S    RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Introduction  :     Call  for  the   Railway  Congress,  .         .         .         .         i 

Opening  Address  of  Hon.  Charles  C.  Bonney,  Prest.  World's  Congress 

Auxiliary,     -----------  5 

Preliminary  Address  by  Mr.  George  R.  Blanchard,  Chairman  World's 

Railway  Commerce  Congress,  -------         7 

The  Scope  of  the  World's  Railway^Commerce  Congress,  by  Chair- 
man George  R.  Blanchard,  Commissioner  Central  Traffic  Association,       15 


ADDRESSES   UPON  ASSIGNED  TOPICS. 

RAILWAY   LAW  AND  LEGISLATION. 

Constitutional  Guarantees  of  Railway  Properties  and  Fran- 
chises Against  Legislative  Spoliation — Hon.  John  F.  Dillon, 
General  Counsel   Union   Pacific  Railway,         -         -         -         -         -        19 

The  Proper  Protection  of  the  Public  Rights  and  Interests 
Involved  in  Railway  Commerce — Hon.  W.  G.  Veazey,  member 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission,         ------  29 

The  Protection  of  Private  Rights  Involved  in  Railway  Com- 
merce— Edward  P.  Ripley,  Vice-President  Chicago,  Milwaukee  & 
St.  Paul  Railway  Co., 42 

Principles  of  Railway  Legislation — Hon.  Martin  A.  Knapp,  member 

Interstate  Commerce  Commission,         ------  49 

Governmental  Regulation  of  Transportation  and  its  Practical 
Effect — ^Hon.  John  W.  Cary,  General  Counsel  Chicago,  Milwaukee 
&  St.  Paul  Railway  Co., 59 

The  Statutory  Regulation  of  Transportation  and  its  Results — 
Alfred  G.  Safford,  Law  Department  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion,        ------------       70 

Economic  Laws  Governing  Railway  Operations — M.  M.  Kirkman, 

2nd  Vice-President  Chicago  &  North-Western   Railway,        -         -  76 

iii 


IV  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

RAILWAY  MANAGEMENT  AND  OPERATION. 

The  Effect  of  Competition  Upon  Railway  Construction  and 
Operation — Aldace  F.  Walker,  Chairman  Joint  Committee  Trunk 
Lines  and  Central  Traffic  Association,       ------       83 

Railway  Strikes;  What  Should  be  Done  in  the  Way  of  Preven- 
tion AND  Control — E.  W.  Meddaugh,  General  Solicitor  Chicago  & 
Grand    Trunk   Railway  Co.,         -------  97 

Railway  Accidents  ;  Their  Causes  and  the  Practical  Safe- 
guards Against  Them — H.  S.  Haines,  Vice-President  Plant  Rail- 
way System,     -         -         -         - -     109 

International  and  Interstate  Railway  Arrangements— George 

R.  Blanchard,  Commissioner  Central  Traffic  Association,       -         -  126 

The  American  Inter-Continentai  Railway — William  E.  Curtis, 
Representative  United  States  Department  of  State,  World's  Colum- 
bian Exposition,       -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -     I37 

Baggage  :  Checking  Systems  and  Delivery,  Claims  for  Damages, 
Limitations  of  Liability,  Restrictions  of  Quantity,  Etc.— 
Marshall  M.  Kirkman,  2nd  Vice-President  Chicago  &  North-Western 
Railway  Co.,         -...------          144 

Passenger  Tickets  ;  Defects  of  Existing  Systems,  Etc. — George  H. 
Heaff  ord.  General  Passenger  and  Ticket  Agent  Chicago,  Milwaukee  & 
St.  Paul  Railway, 150 

Police  Powers  of  Railway  Train  Officials,  Etc. — R.  C.  Richards, 

General  Claim  Agent  Chicago  &  North-Western  Railway,     -         -  155 

Safety  Devices  Applied  to  Railway  Cars — Gen.   Horace   Porter, 

Vice-President  Pullman's  Palace  Car  Co.,         -         -         -         -         -     162 

Railway  Safety  Appliances  in  the  United  States— A.  W.  Soper, 

New  York,  -         - -         -         .         167 

RAILWAY  EMPLOYES. 

Superannuation  of  Railway  Employes — L.  J.   Seargeant,   General 

Manager  Grand  Trunk  Railway  of  Canada, 173 

Appliances  for   the  Safety  of  Railway  Employes — L.  S.  Coffin, 

Ft.  Dodge,  la., 193 

Railway  Employes;  What  Shall  be  Done  for  Their  Pro- 
tection and  Improvement — Kirtland  H.  Wade,  General  Manager 
California  Southern  Railway,    --------     203 

Protection  and  Improvement  of  Railway  Employes — S.  R.  Barr, 

Superintendent  Relief  Department  Baltimore  &  Ohio  Railroad,      -  206 

Relief  of  Railway  Employes — R.  F.  Smith,  Superintendent  Volun- 
tary Relief  Department  Pennsylvania  Lines  West  of  Pittsburgh,         -     215 

RAILWAY  HISTORY  AND  DEVELOPMENT. 

The  Evolution  of  the  American  Railway  System — Jos.  Nimmo,  Jr., 

late  Statistican  U.  S.  Treasury  Department,  -         -         -         .  223 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.  V 

The  Influence  of  Railways  on  the  Settlement  and  Develop- 
ment OF  New  Countries — George  P.  Neele,  Superintendent  of  the 
Line,  London  &  North-Western  Railway,  London,  England,   -         -     242 
Railways    of    Foreign     Countries — Papers    by    representatives    of 
foreign  nations  having  delegations  at  the  World's  P'air : 

Spain — John   Morrison,   General  Manager    Bobadilla    a  Algeciras 

Railway,        --------..  246 

Italy — Count  R.   Piola-Caselli,  General    Secretary   of    the  Italian 
Commission,      -----.-...     249 

Sweden — From  the  Traffic  Manager  of  the   Royal  State  Railway. 

Read  by  Mr.  Axel  Welin,  Secretary  Royal  Swedish  Commission,     251 
New  South  Wales — Plon.  Arthur  Renwick,  M.D.,  Executive  Com- 
missioner to  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition,     -         -       '  -  255 


^^  01  THE 

:UHI7BRSITT] 

WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE 
CONGRESS. 


INTRODUCTORY. 


The  World's  Railway  Commerce  Congress,  which  was  held  in 
the  Art  Institute  building,  in  Chicago,  during  five  days  of  the 
week  commencing  Monday,  July  19,  1893,  was  one  of  the  series 
of  remarkable  gatherings  of  thoughtful  men,  under  the  auspices 
of  the  World's  Congress  Auxiliary,  that  formed  the  distinctively 
intellectual  features  of  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition. 
Early  in  1892  the  originator  and  president  of  the  World's  Con- 
gress Auxiliary,  Hon.  C.  C.  Bonney,  a  distinguished  member  of 
the  Chicago  bar,  a  man  fitted  by  great  ability  and  learning  for 
this  special  work,  and  inspired  by  philanthropic  zeal  for  the 
enlargement  of  human  knowledge  and  the  good  of  mankind, 
laid  out  his  programme  of  congresses  covering  all  branches  of 
intellectual  activity,  and  selected  the  committees  to  organize  the 
different  departments.  The  committee  appointed  under  the 
general  department  of  "  Commerce  and  Finance,"  to  plan  and 
call  a  "  World's  Railway  Commerce  Congress,"  subsequently 
issued  the  following  preliminary  circular  : 

A  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS.— PRELIMINARY  ADDRESS. 


NOT  THINGS,  BUT  MEN. 


The  World's  Congress  Auxiliary  of  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition  of  1893. 
President,   Charles   C.  Bonney ;^  Vice-President,   Thomas  B.  Bryan; 

Treasurer,  Lyman  J.  Gage;  Secretary,  Benjamin  Butterworth. 

Department  of  Commerce  and  Finance. 

General  Division  of  Railway  Commerce, 


Among  the  international  congresses  to  be  held  at  Chicago  during 
the  six-months  season  of  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition  of  1893,  is 
one  on  the  subject  of  railway  commerce.     It  is  proposed  to  convene  on 


2  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

that  occasion  the  leading  representatives  of  the  railway  interests  of  all 
■countries,  for  mutual  acquaintance  and  the  consideration  of  the  means 
by  which  their  common  interests  may  be  promoted  and  their  general 
welfare  advanced. 

Among  all  the  subjects  which  now  deservedly  attract  public  atten- 
tion, none  can  exceed  in  importance  that  of  the  transportation  of  the 
products  in  the  exchange  of  which  commercial  activity  exists,  and  with- 
out which  the  great  affairs  of  civilized  life  could  not  be  conducted  nor 
even  preserved.  The  creation  of  the  railway  world  is  so  recent ;  its 
development  and  progress  have  been  so  rapid  and  so  vast ;  the  interests 
which  it  embraces  are  so  varied  and  so  extensive,  touching  the  welfare 
of  millions  of  people  on  the  one  hand  and  some  of  the  most  important 
operations  of  government  on  the  other,  that  a  proposal  to  consider  these 
great  themes  in  a  world's  congress  of  railway  representatives  justly 
deserves  and  will  undoubtedly  receive  the  respect  and  attention,  not 
only  of  railway  men,  but  also  to  a  considerable  extent  of  producers, 
manufacturers  and  merchants  throughout  the  world. 

The  developments  of  the  railway  business  have  been  so  rapid  ; 
experiments  in  railway  transportation  have  been  tried  in  so  many  local- 
ities and  under  so  many  different  classes  of  circumstances  ;  and  the 
results  of  different  experiments  have  so  many  points  of  peculiar  interest 
and  importance,  that  there  is  obviously  the  highest  propriety  in  conven- 
ing those  who  have  had  the  supervision  and  conduct  of  those  experi- 
ments in  a  congress  for  the  purpose  of  exchanging  views,  comparing 
results,  and  proposing  means  by  which  their  mutual  interests  may  be 
advanced, 

A  few  important  facts  will  emphasize  this  position.  The  railway 
mileage  of  the  world,  at  the  commencement  of  1892,  was  about  395,000 
miles,  representing  a  capital  which  may  be  estimated  on  the  basis  of 
the  latest  returns,  at  about  $25,000,000,000.  The  United  States  has 
now  over  171,000  miles  of  railway,  representing  a  capital  of  more  than 
$11,000,000,000.  The  railway  employes  of  the  United  States  number 
about  850,000  men,  and  the  railway  employes  throughout  the  world 
would  form  an  army  of  at  least  4,000,000.  Every  year,  according  to 
the  average  of  the  last  five  years,  nearly  14,000  miles  of  railway  lines 
have  been  built  in  this  and  other  countries,  and  when  the  World's 
Columbian  Exposition  shall  open,  the  total  mileage  of  the  main  railway 
lines  of  the  globe  will  doubtless  be  at  least  410,000  miles.  It  might  be 
supposed  that  railway  statistics  of  the  different  countries  have  been 
collected  from  year  to  year,  and  are  readily  accessible  to  all  who  may 
desire  to  use  them,  but  this  is  by  no  means  the  case.  On  many  impor- 
tant points  the  most  valuable  statistics  are  lacking  in  whole  or  in  part. 
One  of  the  benefits  to  be  anticipated  from  the  world's  railway  commerce 
congress  is  the  adoption  of  a  world-wide  plan  for  the  collection,  classifi- 
cation and  exchange  of  statistics  in  relation  to  railway  mileage,  cap- 
italization, equipment,  number  of  employes,  and  other  important  rela- 
tions of  railway  commerce. 

Another  subject  of  immense  importance  to  both  the  railway  com- 
panies and  the  general  public,  is  that  of  state  and  national  laws  for  the 
regulation  of  railways  in  their  relation  to  the  people,  to  each  other,  and 
to  their  employes.  The  deliberate  and  thoughtful  consideration  of  the 
practical  results   of  governmental  regulation  and  supervision  ;  of  the 


INTRODUCTORY.  3 

question  whether  such  supervision  should  be  restricted  or  extended  ;  of 
the  best  means  of  preventing  and  of  settling  conflicts  between  railway- 
companies  and  their  employes,  and  various  kindred  subjects,  would 
excite  an  interest  as  deep  and  as  widespread  as  may  be  anticipated  for 
any  other  subject  which  will  be  presented  at  any  other  congress 
embraced  in  the  entire  series. 

Such  a  congress  would  naturally  embrace  the  railroad  commis- 
sioners of  the  various  participating  states  and  nations,  as  well  as  repre- 
sentatives of  various  railroad  corporations.  Such  state  and  national 
commissioners  might  appropriately  be  convened  under  the  leadership 
of  the  Interstate  commerce  commission  of  the  United  States,  and  facili- 
ties will  of  course  be  afforded  for  meetings  of  such  commissioners  apart 
from,  as  well  as  in  connection  with  the  representatives  of  railway  com- 
panies. Opportunity  will  be  given  for  a  comparison  of  the  methods 
and  results  of  railway  regulation  in  various  countries  as  presented  by 
governmental  officials,  in  contradistinction  to  the  presentation  to  be 
made  by  railway  officials. 

To  indicate  the  general  scope  and  purposes  of  the  proposed  railway 
commerce  congress,  the  following  themes,  suggested  by  the  president 
of  the  auxiliary  in  organizing  the  department  of  commerce  and  finance, 
are  here  given  for  the  purpose  of  eliciting  from  all  who  may  be  inter- 
ested, the  recommendation  of  such  additional  or  different  topics  as  may 
be  deemed  proper  for  the  occasion : 

a.  The  origin,  development  and  present  condition  of  railway  commerce  in  different  parts  o 
the  world. 

b.  The  influence  of  railway  commerce  on  the  settlement  and  development  of  new  countries. 

c.  The  practical  results  of  railway  commerce  to  producers,  carriers  and  consumers. 

d.  The  proper  elements  of  the  cost  of  safe  and  efficient  service. 

e.  The  practical  effects  of  free  competition  in  the  construction  and  operation  of  railway  lines. 
/.     The  proper  protection  of  the  public  rights  and  interests  involved  m  railway  commerce. 

g.     The  proper  protection  of  private  rights  and  interests  involved  in  railway  commerce. 

h.    Railway  strikes;  what  should  be  done  in  the  way  of  prevention  and  control. 

i.     Railway  employes ;  what  should  be  done  for  their  protection  and  improvement. 
j.     Railway  accidents ;  their  causes  and  the  practicable  safe-guards  against  them. 

k.    Railway  receiverships ;  the  practical  lessons  they  teach. 

/.     Governmental  regulations  of  transportation  and  practical  results  thereof. 

vt.  Freight  traffic ;  special  contracts,  limitations  of  common  law  liabilities,  railway  clearing 
houses,  traffic  pools,  etc. 

n.  Baggage;  checking  systems  and  delivery;  claims  for  damages,  limitations  of  liability; 
restrictions  of  quantity,  etc. 

0.  Passenger  tickets ;  defects  of  existing  systems ;  special  contracts  and  conditions ;  limita- 
tions of  time  ;  through  tickets ;  commutation  tickets;  zone  tariffs,  etc. 

/.  Police  powers  of  railway  train  officials,  and  the  best  means  of  guarding  against  frauds  on 
the  carrier  and  against  injury  to  passengers  through  accident  or  mistake. 

q.  Interstate  and  international  railway  arrangements;  their  practicability;  the  best  means 
for  their  promotion  and  their  influence  on  the  commerce,  peace  and  prosperity  of  the  world. 

The  subject  of  railway  construction,  equipment  and  operation  has 
been  assigned  to  the  department  of  engineering,  and  will  there  be  con- 
sidered in  detail.  It  was  thought  important  to  relieve  the  railway 
commerce  congress  of  these  topics,  in  order  that  the  immense  public 
and  private  interests  involved  in  the  subject  of  railway  commerce  may 
have  undivided  attention. 

The  congresses  of  the  department  of  commerce  and  finance  will 
commence  June  19,  1893.  The  meetings  will  be  held  in  the  world's 
congress  art  palace  now  in  process  of  erection  on  the  lake-front  park 
at  Chicago,  in  which  there  will  be  two  large  audience  rooms  capable  of 
seating  3,000  persons  each,  and   more  than  twenty  smaller  rooms  for 


4  WORLD'S  /RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

meetings    of  chapters  and  sections.     These  places  of  meetings  will  be 
furnished  free  of  expense  for  the  various  congresses. 

Each  congress  is  in  charge  of  a  local  committee  of  airangements, 
and  this  committee  will  be  assisted  by  an  advisory  council  selected 
from  all  of  the  various  participating  countries,  and  consisting  of  the 
most  eminent  representatives  of  the  interests  involved.  The  advisory 
council  of  the  railway  commerce  congress  will  be  selected  and 
announced  as  soon  as  practicable,  and  in  the  meantime  the  state  and 
national  commissioners  or  other  officials  of  all  countries,  and  the  officers 
of  railway  corporations  throughout  the  world,  are  cordially  invited  to 
furnish  the  undersigned  committee,  at  their  earliest  convenience,  with 
their  suggestions  of  the  themes  which  it  would  be  most  useful  to  con- 
sider in  the  proposed  congress,  of  the  persons  by  whom  such  themes 
may  most  advantageously  be  presented,  and  of  the  modes  of  proceed- 
ing by  which  the  most  satisfactory  and  useful  results  may  be  secured. 

George  R.  Blanchard,  Chairman; 

(Chairman  Central  Traffic  association). 
Horace  R.  Hobart,  Secretary; 

(Vice-President  "  The  Railway  Age.") 
Aldace  F.  Walker, 

(Chaimaan  Western  Traffic  association). 
John  Newell, 

(President  Lake  Shore  &  Michigan  Southern  Ry.  Co.) 
Edwin  Walker, 

(Director  World's  Columbian  Exposition), 
M.  M.  Kirkman, 

(Second  Vice-president  Chicago  &  North-western  Ry.  Co.) 
John  W.  Cary, 

(General  Counsel  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St,  Paul  Ry.  Co.) 
George  B.  Reeve, 

(Traffic  Manager  Chicago  &  Grand  Trunk  Ry.) 
W.  H.  McDoEL, 

(General  Manager  Louisville,  New  Albany  &  Chicago  Ry.  Co.) 

W.    W.    FiNLEY, 

(Traffic  Manager  Great  Northern  Ry,  Co,) 

Committee  of  the  World'' s  Congress  Auxiliary 

on  a  Railway  Commerce  Congress. 

world's  congress  headquarters. 
September,  1892. 

The  committee  selected  a  large  list  of  railway  officials  and 
others  familiar  with  railway  problems,  and  engaged  in  an 
extended  correspondence  which  resulted  in  favorable  responses 
from  many  of  the  men  most  eminent  in  the  theory  and  practice 
of  railway  management,  whose  addresses  before  the  railway  com- 
merce congress,  here  collected,  constitute  a  remarkable  body  of 
fact  and  argument  in  connection  with  the  great  subject  of  trans- 
portation and  will  be  found  of  lasting  value  and  interest. 


OPENING  OF  THE  CONGRESSES. 


OPENING  OF  THE  UNITED  CONGRESSES  OF  COMMERCE 
AND  FINANCE. 


ADDRESS    OF    PRESIDENT    BONNEY,  OF    THE    WORLD  S    CONGRESS 
AUXILIARY. 


The  greatest  idea  in  the  business  world  to-day  is  the  idea  of  frater- 
nity and  cooperation.  We  have  reached  a  stage  in  the  evolution  of  the 
business  world  in  which  the  fierce  and  deadly  strife  for  supremacy, 
called  competition,  in  which  the  stronger  build  up  prosperity  on  the 
ruins  of  the  weaker ;  and  that  next  natural  development,  the  substitu- 
tion of  gigantic  combinations  for  competitive  strife,  are  giving  place  to 
a  third  advance,  the  one  of  all  destined  to  be  enduring,  the  stage  of 
cooperation.  I  am  well  aware  that  at  first  glance  it  would  not  be  sup- 
posed that  banks,  and  insurance  companies,  and  railway  corporations 
stand  as  representatives  of  cooperation  ;  but  I  trust  it  will  be  shown  in 
the  congresses  now  about  to  be  held  that  this  is  strictly  true.  Of  all 
the  institutions  of  cooperation  yet  invented,  the  ordinary  banking  insti- 
tution stands  preeminently  the  first ;  for,  what  is  a  bank  but  a  coopera- 
tion on  the  part  of  its  customers  in  contributing  their  respective  deposits 
into  the  hands  of  the  managers  and  directors  of  the  banks,  in  order 
that  the  funds  so  contributed  may  be  advanced  to  the  deserving  manu- 
facturer or  merchant  or  carrier  to  facilitate  the  transaction  of  his  busi- 
ness ?  And,  curiously  enough,  that  one  class  in  which,  perhaps,  the 
most  prejudice,  if  not  hostility,  exists  in  relation  to  financial  institutions, 
the  agricultural  class,  is  the  one  which  most  needs  the  aid  of  monetary 
institutions.  The  farmer  is  able  to  obtain  the  means  from  his  country 
storekeeper  to  plant  and  sow  his  crops,  to  clothe  and  feed  his  hands, 
and  wait  till  the  sale  of  his  products  enables  him  to  make  payment, 
because  the  country  merchant  is  given  a  corresponding  credit  by  the 
country  banker,  who  in  turn  is  aided  by  some  bank  of  one  of  the  great 
financial  centers  of  the  country. 

I  trust  that  this  Congress  on  Commerce  and  Finance  will  aid  in 
bringing  financial  institutions  into  closer  sympathy  with  the  people  of 
the  world,  and  in  dispelling  unfounded  prejudices  in  regard  to  their 
relations. 

But  is  the  grain  exchange  entitled  to  a  place  in  the  list  of  coopera- 
tive institutions  ?  Put  the  grain  exchange  out  of  existence,  and  there 
would  be  no  means  by  which  the  producer  in  Illinois,  or  Alabama,  or 
Austria,  or  any  other  country  could  ascertain  the  current  range  of  prices, 
the  state  of  the  demand,  and  the  sources  and  abundance  of  the  supply. 
In  the  great  grain  centers  of  the  world  alone  is  the  business  conducted 
with  such  general  publicity  that  all  changes  in  prices  are  instantly 
known,  and  instantly  telegraphed  all  over  the  world.  Into  these  great 
markets  the  producers  of  the  world  may  bring  or  send  their  products. 


6  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

to  meet  the  buyers  of  the  world,  either  in  person  or  through  their  rep- 
resentatives. The  grain  exchange  therefore  stands  as  that  means  by 
which,  better  than  any  other  yet  devised,  the  producer  and  the  con- 
sumer maybe  brought  together  in  the  best  relation  for  fair  dealing  with 
each  other. 

But  the  railway  corporation  of  the  present  age  —  is  not  this  surely  a 
"giant  oppressor"  ?  Without  the  railroads  of  the  world  it  would  have 
taken  more  than  ten  centuries  to  reach  the  present  condition  of  man- 
kind. To  take  away  railways  would  be  practically  to  bind  men  to  the 
localities  in  which  they  were  born,  and  where  most  of  them  would  die 
without  ever  having  seen  any  considerable  part  of  the  world.  Take 
the  railways  out  of  existence,  and  this  vast  territory,  that  is  called  the 
garden  of  the  world,  would  not  be  crowded  with  a  thriving  population, 
as  it  is  to-day.  This  is  not  saying  that  every  banker,  or  even  grain 
exchanger,  or  railway  manager,  or  merchant  has  always  conducted  his 
business  according  to  angelic  principles ;  for,  if  he  had,  he  would  find 
himself  in  a  world  to  which  he  would  not  be  altogether  well  adapted. 
It  is  enough  to  say  that,  as  a  rule,  they  have  averaged  well  in  the  service 
of  the  general  welfare.  But  insurance  companies  —  what  relation  have 
they  to  the  great  current  of  the  business  of  the  world  ?  Here,  also,  the 
supreme  principle  of  cooperation  has  asserted  its  sway.  The  insurance 
company  is  a  device  by  which  many  contribute  small  sums  of  money 
for  the  purpose  of  paying  the  losses  which  the  few  will  suffer.  In  this 
way  alone  can  the  risks  incident  to  modern  commercial  and  financial 
operations  be  adequately  met.  In  this  way  alone  can  the  many  prac- 
tically contribute  to  reimburse  the  losses  which  otherwise  would  crush 
and  destroy  the  few  on  whom  they  fall. 

Transportation  could  not  be  conducted  on  its  present  great  scale, 
either  by  water  or  by  land,  if  this  mode  of  protecting  the  property  in 
transit  and  of  distributing  the  losses  in  case  of  damage  or  destruction 
were  not  in  operation. 

One  of  the  latest  devices  brought  into  this  field  of  cooperation  is 
the  building  association,  in  which  precisely  the  same  principles  that 
have  been  described  are  applied  to  the  procuring  of  homes  for  the  cus- 
tomers of  these  institutions.  In  this  way,  again,  the  earnings  of  the 
many  are  brought  together  into  a  common  fund  for  use  by  those  who 
need  them.  Those  who  have  funds  to  advance  contribute  them  in  order 
that  others  may  borrow,  and  apply  their  earnings  to  repayment  in  place 
of  rent,  until  they  become  home  owners  instead  of  home  renters. 

Here  again  we  recur  to  the  supreme  and  all-controlling  principle 
which,  sooner  or  later,  will  bring  the  whole  business  world  into  a  condi- 
tion, not  only  of  thorough  organization,  but  of  thorough  and  friendly 
relations,  and  of  genuine  cooperation.  No  bank  can  long  thrive  except 
its  customers  themselves  be  prosperous.  The  banker  cannot  take  the 
substance  of  his  patron,  beyond  the  proper  measure,  without  becoming 
the  foe  instead  of  the  friend  of  the  customer,  and  the  ruin  of  the  latter 
means  in  the  end  the  injury  of  the  former.  No  railway  line  can  long  thrive 
unless  it  be  at  peace  with  those  who  desire  to  have  their  property  and 
persons  transported  along  its  lines.  And  the  same  principle  applies  to 
the  merchant,  the  building  association,  and  the  insurer.  There  can  be 
permanent  success  only  when  the  principles  of  candor,  fair  dealing  and 


PRELIMINARY  ADDRESS.  7 

honest  compensation  prevail  between  those  who  administer  these  great 
agencies  of  modern  civilization  and  those  who  serve  or  patronize  them. 

Water  commerce  was  to  have  constituted  the  seventh  general  divi- 
sion of  this  department,  but  because  of  the  intimate  relation  between  the 
subject  of  water  commerce  and  enlargement  or  construction  of  water- 
ways, assigned  to  the  department  of  engineering,  the  former  was  trans- 
ferred, at  the  joint  request  of  the  authorities  in  charge  of  the  Engineer- 
ing congresses  and  those  in  charge  of  the  Water  Commerce  congress, 
to  the  latter  department,  which  will  hold  its  congress  in  the  week  com- 
mencing the  31st  of  July.  This  leaves  six  congresses  in  this  depart- 
ment to  be  held  during  the  present  and  the  following  week. 

As  a  concluding  thought,  I  will  offer  you  the  suggestion,  or  reminder, 
that  these  great  agencies  of  modern  commerce  and  finance  largely  hold 
in  their  hands  the  peace  of  the  world.  No  nation  can  make  war  against 
the  will  of  the  men  who  hold  the  money  of  the  world,  and  when  the  great 
powers  of  commerce  and  finance  take  their  stand  on  the  side  of  peace, 
they  can  do  as  much  to  command  the  peace  of  the  world  and  stay  the 
havoc  of  war  as  any  other  human  agencies.  And  when  these  powers 
are  united  with  moral,  social  and  religious  influences  working  in  this 
direction  there  can  be  little  cause  for  fear. 

It  only  remains  for  me  to  extend  to  you,  as  I  now  do,  a  most  hearty 
and  earnest  welcome,  on  the  part  of  the  World's  Congress  Auxiliary,  to 
the  congresses  of  this  department ;  on  the  part  of  the  city  of  Chicago, 
to  its  hospitality;  on  the  part  of  the  state  of  Illinois,  to  the  great  fields 
in  which  all  the  powers  of  commerce  and  finance  have  made  wonderful 
developments  ;  and  on  behalf  of  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
which  has  authorized  us  to  speak  in  its  name,  I  wish  you  in  these  con- 
gresses, not  merely  success,  for  that  is  already  assured,  but  that  you  shall 
have  the  satisfaction,  when  these  congresses  shall  have  been  brought  to 
a  close,  of  feeling  that  you  have  materially  influenced  the  public  opin- 
ion of  the  world  in  favor  of  just  dealing  and  upright  conduct  in  the 
business  world,  and  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  all  peoples. 


PRELIMINARY  ADDRESS. 


BY   THE   CHAIRMAN,   GEORGE   R.  BLANCHARD,   COMMISSIONER  CENTRAL 
TRAFFIC  ASSOCIATION. 


[Delivered  at  the  first  meeting  of   the  World's  Railway  Congress  held  in  connection  with 
the  other  Congresses  of  Commerce  and  Finance,  on  the  evening  of  June  19,  1893]. 


Mr.  President,  Mr.   Chairman,   Gentlemen    and  Ladies: 

Thousands  of  passenger  trains  and  a  far  greater  number  of  merch- 
andise trains  are  now  moving  over  the  world's  railways,  and  in  some 
national  or  international  sense  they  are  pulses  of  this  great  Exposition 
heart.  They  also  are  intermingling  peoples  and  their  products.  On 
behalf  of  their  owners,  managements  and  employes,  I  thank  you  for 
your  welcome  to  their  calling,  numbers  and  achievements,  but   I  wish 


8  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

that  the  duty  of  answering  your  much  appreciated  words  of  cordiality 
had  fallen  to  others  of  the  guild  than  myself.  We  prosaic  carriers  are 
not  without  orators  who  have  won  laurels  for  logic  and  eloquence,  not 
more  in  representing  their  g^reat  profession  than  in  other  public  rela- 
tions. It  would,  therefore,  be  unpardonable  to  overlook  that  Watkins, 
Childers,  Neele,  Forbes  and  Tyler  of  England  ;  Depew,  Porter,  Alex- 
ander, Fink,  Cooley  and  Seargent  and  others  of  America,  and  yet 
others  of  all  countries,  could  better  fulfill  my  present  office.  They,  with 
Ames  of  Massachusetts,  Winans  in  Russia,  Meigs  in  South  America, 
and  many  others  in  many  countries  have  forged  the  iron  ribbons  which 
tie  nations  together.  Such  men  are  here  in  the  living  sense  of  renown, 
if  not  in  their  personalities,  and  on  behalf  of  them  and  all  of  every 
grade  who  have  labored  or  now  labor  in  all  branches  of  railway  work, 
I  thank  you  again. 

The  Transportation  building  at  the  Exposition  displays  two  legends; 
one  of  Lord  Bacon  says  : 

"  There  be  three  things  which  make  a  nation  great  and  prosperous — a  fertile  soil,  busy  work- 
shops, and  easy  conveyance  for  men  and  goods  from  place  to  place." 

Lord  Macaulay  says  : 

"  Of  all  inventions,  the  alphabet  and  the  printing  press  alone  excepted,  those  inventions 
which  abridge  distance  have  done  the  most  for  civilization." 

Mr.  Chairman,  permit  me  to  claim  that  it  was  reserved  for  our  call- 
ing to  transform  the  steam  of  a  tea-kettle  into  a  force  which  has 
achieved  this  greatness  and  prosperity  of  nations,  and  has  done  and  is 
doing  most  for  civilization.  It  has  accomplished  more  to  those  ends 
than  statesmen,  armies  and  revolutions.  I  therefore  think,  with  the 
ladies,  that  the  crest  of  progress  and  cordiality  should  be  a  tea  -  kettle. 

I  claim  for  Watts  a  greater  fame  than  for  Peter  the  Great,  William 
of  Orange,  or  Cavour,  Thiers,  Bismarck  or  Gladstone.  Aye,  even  greater 
than  Washington,  or  Lincoln  the  undying;  for  while  all  these  united  or 
preserved  each  his  own  nation,  W^atts'  discovery  has  pulled  down  the 
partitions  between  kingdoms  and  fashioned  the  way  for  the  world  to 
become  one  commonwealth  ;  a  commercial  republic  so  universal  that 
the  interchanges  between  its  remotest  communities  are  easier  and 
quicker  today  than  in  many  single  countries  when  Watts  watched  the 
steam  of  that  historic  kettle  sing  and  lift  its  lid. 

True  and  great  builders  and  workers  for  good,  therefore,  have  been 
those  men  who  have  supplied  the  means,  the  transportation  manager 
who  utilized  them,  and  the  humbler  laborers  who  stand  at  the  throttle 
and  the  ship's  valve. 

Without  their  combined  works  senates  would  now  be  impotent  of 
progress.  It  is  no  longer  a  strife  for  conquest  by  arms  but  by  aims. 
The  proofs  lie  in  yonder  white  cosmopolis,  where  nations  grow  more 
neighborly  and  cordial  daily,  and  more  emulative  in  the  arts  which  bene- 
fit and  comfort  mankind. 

Mr.  President,  I  pause  in  the  adulation  for  the  conceptions  and 
hardihood  of  Columbus  and  the  small  contribution  to  his  purposes  from 
the  royal  revenues  of  Isabella  and  Ferdinand,  to  give  at  least  equal  d'ues 
to  Headley,  Watts  and  Trevithick,  and  Fulton,  Hudson,'Brunel,  Thomson 
and  Latrobe.  I  am  more  impressed  with  "  The  Rocket "  of  Stephen- 
son, with  its  fourteen  miles  per  hour  in  1825,  and  with  Buchanan's 
engine  999  at  106  miles  per  hour  in  1893.    I  concede  the  courage  which 


PRELIMINARY  ADDRESS.  9 

guided  the  caravels  of  the  great  navigator,  but  let  us  give  equal  honor 
to  Robert  Fulton,  to  the  architect  of  the  Campania  of  untouched  ocean 
record,  and  to  the  marine  achievements  of  the  New  York.  One  such 
locomotive  as  the  999,  and  one  such  ship  as  the  New  York  constitute  a 
national  procession  by  land  and  sea,  because  nations  fall  into  line 
behind  them.  We  concede  the  national  courtesies  due  to  the  long 
Castilian  descent  of  our  jubilee  relative,  the  Infanta,  but  I  urge  a 
higher  recognition  for  the  royal  ascent  from  Trevithick  to  Corliss  and 
Baldwin,  and  from  Leof  Ericson,  Vespucius  and  Columbus  to  Roach, 
Cramp  and  Harlan.  In  electrical  force  from  Franklin  to  Morse,  Brush, 
Green  and  Houston,  and  Westinghouse  should  not  go  unremembered. 
We  believe  all  these  names  stand  as  the  higher  types  of  discovery  and 
progress,  and  that  no  other  calling  represented  at  this  great  work  and 
sale  shop  of  nations  shows  the  advance  in  conceptions  and  results  indi- 
cated in  the  Transportation  Building,  where  electricity  and  air  are 
the  sons  and  helpers  of  steam. 

The  marbles  of  Praxiteles,  the  Venus  of  Milo  and  the  Laocoon  still 
point  art  students  to  the  higher  uses  of  the  chisel.  The  entrance  halls 
to  this  room  attest  the  value  of  the  Greek  examples.  The  paintings 
of  Angelo,  Murillo  and  Rubens,  Holbein  and  Raphael,  are  standards  of 
emulation  for  pencil,  brush  and  pigment.  The  temple  of  Solomon,  the 
Pyramids,  the  ornate  beauties  of  Indian  architecture,  the  strength  and 
graces  of  St.  Peter's  and  St.  Paul's  and  the  Cologne  cathedral  remain 
the  most  eloquent  marvels  of  uplifted  stone. 

The  able  chief  of  the  Transportation  exhibit  has  well  said  of  the 
architecture  of  the  Exposition  palaces,  that  the  greatest  adulation  they 
can  receive  is  that  they  equal  the  ancient  temples  of  Athens.  The 
beauties  of  old  Etruscan  jewels  still  stimulate  our  lapidaries  and  gold- 
workers.  We  find  excellent  substances  and  forms  of  potteries  in  pre- 
historic mounds,  in  Pompeii,  and  in  old  Dutch  blues.  The  ancient 
porcelains  of  China  outvalue  in  texture  and  hues  royal  Worcester  and 
Sevres.  Peter  Vischer  worked  artistic  hammered  iron  in  early  days  in 
Nuremburg.  We  still  admire  the  old  Flemish  and  Gobelin  tapestries. 
There  were  fine  linens  and  throne  robes  in  the  days  of  the  Saviour  and 
Solomon.  The  elder  embroideries  of  Chinese  needles  are  unsurpassed, 
and  the  loom  of  Jaccard  remains  the  maximum  facility  of  the  weaver. 
Persian  and  Turkish  carpets  have  not  been  outcolored  since  the  days 
of  Omar.  In  all  these  antiquity  is  value.  Not  so  with  steam  trans- 
portation and  its  electrical  adjunct.  Their  riches  are  modern.  They 
are  nineteenth  century  plants.  Nor  are  they  lost  arts  regained. 
Steam  power  is  a  modern  discovery  and  resource  which  has  made  loco- 
motives the  comets  of  the  land,  freight  cars  its  argosies  and  Pullman 
cars  its  palankeens.  From  the  Egyptian  donkeys,  which  carried  water 
jars  from  the  Nile  to  adjacent  sterility,  onward  to  the  compound 
engines  of  the  Baldwin  locomotives  and  the  Majestic,  which  carry  yet 
greater  fructifications,  are  strides  which  outwalk  all  other  journeys  of 
thought.  Between  the  old  Mohawk  &  Hudson  passenger  carriages 
and  the  palatial  traveling  homes  of  Pullman  and  Wagner,  and  from  the 
Santa  Maria  to  the  Fuerst  Bismarck  there  are  vast  steps.  Moreover, 
the  exhibits  of  steam  transportation  lie  almost  within  two  generations. 
Not  until  January  i,  1890,  did  Horatio  Allen,  who  let  steam  into  the 
first    locomotive    cylinder    in   America,    touch    his    eternal    pillow.     It 


lO  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

is  but  sixty -eight  years  since  "The  Rocket"  first  ran,  and  it  is  fit 
and  just  that  we  acknowledge  England  as  the  father  of  the  steam 
valve  and  thank  the  gods  the  problem  was  solved  in  our  language 
and  then  taught  to  other  nations  in  theirs.  It  induces  us  to  condone 
the  tea  tax. 

When  I  had  the  honor  to  be  associated  in  the  management  of  that 
pioneer  American  railway  company,  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio,  I  found 
among  its  old  papers  its  original  stock  subscription  list.  Recorded 
there  were  the  signatures  of  an  American  trio  who  came  to  honorable 
fame.  They  were  Charles  Carroll  of  Carrollton,  the  last  surviving 
signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence ;  Roger  B.  Taney,  whose 
career  as  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  was  a  synonym  for  learn- 
ing and  justice  ;  and  George  Peabody,  of  lasting  philanthropic  memory 
and  benefactions.  They  represented  independence,  equity  and  honor- 
able finance,  going  hand  in  hand  to  secure  improved  inter -communi- 
cation. The  Baltimore  &  Ohio  company  received  the  first  American 
railway  charter  February  28,  1827,  and  when  Charles  Carroll  of  Carroll- 
ton,  laid  its  cornerstone  July  4,  1828,  at  Mt.  Clare,  near  Baltimore, 
every  one  of  the  historical  company  present  wore  a  badge  bearing  his 
likeness  and  name.  June  10,  1869,  less  than  forty -one  years  there- 
after, the  iron  rails  first  laid  at  Mt.  Clare  were  continuous  to  the 
Golden  Gate  and  a  golden  spike  had  joined  them.  It  is  almost  im- 
possible to  conceive  that  the  vast  American  railway  system,  now  175,- 
000  miles,  will  only  be  sixty -five  years  old  next  month.  The  lives  of 
many  hale  men  span  from  the  first  meeting  of  citizens  of  Baltimore  to 
advocate  the  work,  to  the  splendid  railway  contributions  and  triumphs 
at  the  Exposition. 

Against  the  phenomenal  land  career  of  this  steam  prodigy  the  Cam- 
pania and  New  York  are  the  slower  growths  of  centuries  of  naval 
architecture.  We  cannot  resist  the  suggestion  that  while  it  took  1,492 
years  for  mariners  to  get  from  Palestine  to  America  over  the  seas,  the 
power  of  steam  traversed  a  farther  distance  from  Liverpool  to  San 
Francisco,  over  both  seas  and  mountains,  in  the  forty  -  four  years  be- 
tween 1825  and  1869. 

Opposing  their  forces  laid  the  doubts  of  the  world,  now  vanquished. 
There  are  no  longer  any  national  frontiers.  The  world  is  one  domain 
to  the  locomotive  and  the  screw.  The  steam  whistle  is  the  earth's 
huzza,  and  the  throttle  and  the  rudder  are  the  best  guides  and  instru- 
mentalities of  human  peace  and  unity.  You  all  remember  that  a  com- 
mittee of  parliament  asked  Stephenson  what  the  result  would  be  if  his 
locomotive  encountered  a  cow  on  the  track,  and  his  sturdy  answer  that 
"  it  would  be  bad  for  the  cow."  In  a  larger  sense  it  is  bad  for  any 
nation  which  encounters  the  locomotive  and  does  not  get  out  of  its  way 
or  into  its  train,  because  it  is  doing  wondrous  and  good  things  with  an 
irresistible  impetus.  It  made  this  educational  exposition  possible. 
Its  whistle  resounds  to-day  in  Jerusalem,  echoing  the  Redeemer's 
injunction  to  carry  good  tidings  unto  all  nations.  It  is  hard  to  foretell  its 
farther  destinations  and  destinies  with  the  help  of  you  gentlemen  of 
commerce  and  finance.  It  is  pointed  toward  Alaska.  There  is  a  less 
distance  remaining  between  South  and  North  American  rails  than  from 
Buffalo  to  San  Francisco,  and  the  Patagonian  may  yet  be  reclaimed  by 
it.     Buenos  Ayres,  Santiago  and  Rio  Janeiro  may  be  made  suburbs  of 


PRELIMINAR  V  ADDRESS.  1 1 

this  Union,  and  the  shore  of  Hudson's  Bay  furnish  its  watering  places. 
It  is  following  the  footsteps  of  Stanley  up  the  Nile,  and  begins  to  star- 
tle the  sleep  of  the  Orient.  Its  headlights  may  illumine  the  dark- 
ness of  the  land  of  the  midnight  sun.  You  can  express  your  trunk  from 
Chicago  to  Budapest,  or  to  Hong  Kong  or  Constantinople,  and  you  can 
buy  tickets  from  London  through  Chicago,  to  Melbourne  and  Yeddo, 
with  absolute  security  to  person  and  belongings.  Jules  Verne's 
"Around  the  World  in  Eighty  Days  "  is  abridged  without  the  accidents 
and  delays  which  hindered  his  hero. 

Mr.  Chairman,  this  brings  me  to  another  purpose  in  addressing  you. 
It  is  fitting  tonight  that  railways  should  follow  finance.  That  is  the 
sequence  of  things.  First  bonds  and  stocks  taken,  then  railways  built, 
then  should  follow  mutual  efforts  to  achieve  the  highest  planes  of  asso- 
ciated managements,  for  they  are  the  right  and  left  arms  of  progress, 
national  protection  and  national  and  international  financial  standing. 
The  credit  of  the  union  is  first  told  by  its  bonds,  next  by  its  railway 
mortgages,  and  they  should  be  mutually  guarded.  Nevertheless 
unreason  soon  forgets  and  assails  its  benefactors,  and  railways  are  no 
exception  to  this  record  of  unappreciation. 

You  gentlemen  of  commerce  and  finance  are  encountering  the  evils 
of  unwise  monetary  legislation,  and  you  are  apprehensive  of  more. 
You  are  demanding  the  repeal  of  unsound  fiscal  enactments,  and  the 
institution  of  wiser  financial  laws.  We  of  transportation  are  under- 
going even  more  crudities,  and  in  some  instances  the  unfriendliness  of 
national  legislation.  Over  thirty  bills  arose  in  the  last  congress  relat- 
ing to  railway  rates,  rights  and  administration,  all  but  one  of  which 
purposed  in  some  degree  to  diminish  their  net  results  by  adding  greater 
responsibilities  or  creating  greater  expenditures.  Countless  municipal- 
ities and  counties,  and  many  of  the  states,  presented  various  measures 
of  like  purport  until  the  aggregate  constituted  volumes  of  proposed  and 
enacted  limitations  greater  than  ever  impended  in  any  year  in  any 
nation  concerning  its  carriers. 

The  railway  charges  of  the  United  States  average,  for  swifter  service 
and  larger  carrying  liabilities,  not  two -thirds  of  those  of  European 
countries,  and  England  instituted  advanced  rates  last  year.  We  pay 
greatly  more  for  railway  labor  than  any  other  country.  Taxation  is 
increasing.  The  growth  of  cities  traversed,  changing  grade  crossings, 
increasing  terminal  and  track  facilities,  speed,  etc.,  all  lead  to  greater 
and  unavoidable  current  outlays,  and  many  of  the  leading  lines  are 
increasing  their  funded  obligations  to  meet  these  conditions.  There  is 
but  one  source  from  which  we  can  derive  the  revenues  therefor,  the 
public,  but  that  public  through  legislators  who  misapprehend  both  the 
situation  and  justice,  and  who  bend  more  to  illogical  ballots  and  ambi- 
tions than  do  they  stand  erect  for  the  right,  are  increasing  the  people's 
privileges,  and  railways'  expenditures  and  responsibilities  and,  simul- 
taneously, our  rewards  therefor. 

This  is  all  done  under  the  guise  of  regulating  commerce,  but  it  is 
not  commerce  which  is  regulated.  It  is  but  the  small  transportation 
element  of  it.  The  actual  commerce  in  grain,  pork,  iron  and  fabrics 
remains  unrestricted  by  federal  law.  Witness  your  defeat  of  the 
Hatch  bill,  intended  to  curtail  the  liberty  of  trade  and  the  constitutional 
power  of  contract. 


V^  Of  thk"**^ 


12  WORLUS  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

The  real  exponent  of  both  transportation  and  commerce  in  one  per- 
son, is  the  peddler  with  his  pack,  and  he  is  and  should  remain,  as 
should  his  successors,  unrestricted  in  any  state  or  by  the  nation,  whether 
he  crosses  a  state  line  or  not,  when  engaged  in  just  purposes  and 
charges. 

It  was  the  true  intent  of  the  Annapolis  constitutional  convention, 
and  the  language  then  adopted  into  the  national  charter,  to  prevent 
interference  by  any  state  traversed  with  the  peddler's  or  seller's  due  lib- 
erties of  purchase,  journey  and  sale,  and  not  to  intercept  railroad  car- 
riers alone,  for  there  were  no  railways  in  any  nation  for  a  generation 
thereafter.  Nor  was  it  intended  in  this  respect  that  the  nation  should 
practice  the  discriminations  the  states  were  forbidden  to  exercise,  of 
restricting  one  carrier  and  freeing  the  other.  Water  routes  are  free 
today.     Railway  routes  are  not. 

To  provide  for  current  obligations,  pay  labor  and  taxation,  care  for 
sinking  funds,  improve  safe  and  expeditious  service,  comply  with  law 
and  hope  for  due  rewards  upon  our  share  capital,  we  first  sought  and 
still  seek  to  stop  all  depletions  of  revenue  by  rebates  from  our  just  and 
legal  tariffs  which  also  result  in  preferences  to  persons.  Rebates  are 
never  paid  unsolicited.  They  are  oftenest  resisted  under  importunities 
and  sometimes  threats  of  diversion  of  the  traffic  of  large  aggregations 
of  individual  capital.  Our-  purpose  being  identical  with  that  of  the 
interstate  act,  we  asked  the  national  Congress  to  legalize  our  contracts 
for  the  maintenance  of  uniform  reasonable  charges,  upon  the  ground 
set  forth  by  Judge  Dundy  of  Oregon,  in  these  words: 

"It  is  not  apparent  how  the  division  of  the  earnings  of  the  two  roads  can  concern  the  public 
so  long  as  the  rate  of  transportation  is  reasonable." 

We  proposed  to  give  the  governmental  commission  the  right  to  revoke 
the  grant  of  such  authority  when  proven  to  have  been  used  to  exact 
unreasonable  rates  or  regulations.  The  single  ballot  of  the  senior  sen- 
ator from  Illinois  defeated  favorable  report  thereon.  We  hope  this 
year  to  reverse  his  veto,  and  to  incite  your  interest  in  these  views  to 
that  end,  as  you  command  our  cooperation  in  your  equally  reasonable 
proposals  in  the  following  respects. 

Organized  stock  exchanges  are  needful  to  values  and  fiscal  regu- 
lation ;  produce,  real  estate  and  insurance  exchanges  and  boards  of 
trade  to  mercantile  prices  and  probity ;  clearing  houses  to  banks ;  mari- 
time exchange  to  marine  enterprises ;  and  chambers  of  commerce  to 
unite  them  all. 

They  are  deemed  essential  to  the  observance  of  sound  business 
principles,  and  the  preservation  of  corporate  capital  unimpaired,  in 
order  that  insurers  and  depositors  may  not  lose  theirs.  Railway  share- 
holders are  entitled  to  like  protection.  Some  authority  must  exist  in 
every  great  and  public  calling  that  is  central,  respected,  definite,  disci- 
plinary and  forceful;  not  merely  permissive  existences,  but  needful  and 
legalized  public  safeguards. 

If  the  government  purchased  our  railways,  as  many  advocate,  the 
controlling  and  unifying  power  would  dwell  in  a  governmental  rail- 
way direction. 

All  the  receipts  from  governmental  railway  traffic  would  then 
surely  go  into  one  general  purse  or  pool,  as  do  all  its  receipts  now. 
Competition  would  cease,  as  in  the  postal  service  ;  discriminations  would 


PRELIMINARY  ADDRESS.  13 

stop,  as  in  the  collection  of  customs  tariffs ;  and  the  gross  incomes  re- 
ceived would  be  apportioned  to  this  or  that  railway  or  district  as  they 
are  now  from  mail  and  other  revenues,  in  order  to  show  incomes,  ex- 
penses, profits,  efficiency  and  honesty  of  public  administration,  the  need 
for  new  laws,  etc. 

This  would  mean  legalized  railway  association,  which  is  what  we 
ask  the  nation  to  authorize  for  us,  because  the  problem  cannot  be  easier 
to  individuals  possessing  less  than  governmental  powers. 

Moreover,  if  it  be  right  to  maintain  customs  and  internal  tax  rates 
alike  to  all,  why  not  railway  rates?  The  government's  net  ordinary 
receipts  for  1891  were  392  millions  of  dollars.  Our  railways  received 
1 126  millions,  or  about  three  times  as  much.  They  therefore  touch 
more  people,  and  should  be  stable,  non-preferential  and  reasonable. 

The  New  York  Clearing  House  association  is  a  voluntary  federation 
of  nearly  seventy  banks,  organized  in  1853,  representing  a  vast  capital. 
Its  annual  clearances  of  about  34,000  millions  of  dollars  are  thirty 
times  as  much  as  the  annual  gross  receipts  of  the  railways  of  the  union. 
Its  constitution  says  its  object  is 

"the  affecting  at  one  place  of  the  daily  exchanges  between  the  several  associated  banks,  and 
the  payment  at  the  same  place  of  the  balances  resulting." 

This  banking  association  has  proven  its  great  value  as  a  barrier  or 
aid  to  financial  crises.  It  assisted  the  government  in  the  exigencies 
of  its  war  finance,  and  has  introduced  and  sustains  uniform  and  con- 
servative banking  methods.  The  fact  that  within  a  few  days  its  mem- 
bers have  decided  to  stand  together  and  assist  each  other  is  hailed  as 
an  omen  of  monetary  security. 

The  New  York  Stock  Exchange  determines  what  securities  may 
be  properly  admitted  and  quoted,  and  if  its  charges  are  abated  by  its 
members,  they  are  disciplined.  Its  regulations  are  enforced  by  the 
courts.  Its  quotations  for  railway  bonds  and  shares  vary  daily,  while 
agreements  by  railway  corporations  to  secure  stable  and  non-discrimi- 
nating carrying  charges  are  declared  without  the  pale  of  law. 

The  Produce  Exchange  of  New  York  was  chartered  as  "  The  New 
York  Commercial  Association,"  to  enforce  good  commercial  methods 
and  honorable  dealing  between  its  members.  Its  quotations  also  vary 
day  by  day,  but  when  railways  seek  to  give  the  transportation  element  in 
the  same  articles  traded  upon  its  floor,  stable,  reasonable  and  public 
legal  values  by  a  similar  organization,  the  people  are  told  it  is  a  railway 
conspiracy  to  be  opposed  in  the  public  interest. 

The  fact  that  either  of  these  last  named  bodies  are  used  by  specu- 
lators to  wrong  others  does  not  detract  frorn  their  legality  or  their 
aggregate  usefulness  and  value. 

A  proper  and  legalized  railway  association  for  similar  purposes  is 
even  more  essential  than  these  and  other  trade  exchanges,  because  the 
railways  in  some  manner  relate  to  the  business  of  them  all.  A  railway 
officer  who  has  agreed  to  maintain  reasonable  rates,  yet  pays  concealed 
drawbacks  and  thereby  creates  unlawful  preferences,  is  too  frequently 
regarded  as  a  public  benefactor  and  his  act  credited  to  competition, 
when  he  would  be  expelled  from  either  of  the  exchanges  named  for 
similar  action  touching  any  other  agreement. 

If  the  great  boards  of  trade  had  long  ago  evicted  railway  agents 
who  violated  their  obligations  to  observe  uniform  and  reasonable  rates, 


14  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

as  they  would  eject  other  members  who  dishonored  other  mercantile 
agreements  involving  less  sums  and  injuries,  they  would  have  greatly 
aided  railway  morality  and  the  law.  I  furthermore  regard  it  as  their 
prime  duty  to  seek  and  procure  equal  rates  for  all  their  members.  The 
largest  shippers  are,  however,  usually  influential  in  such  bodies,  and 
reward  with  their  large  traffics  those  railways  which  first  or  most  often 
depart  from  reasonable  joint  tariffs,  made  as  the  law  requires. 

The  National  Congress,  the  states,  and  trade  organizations  should 
not  encourage  and  perpetuate  this  corporate  contention  and  bad  faith, 
under  the  misnomer  of  "competition,"  for  carrying  strife  is  in  the  inter- 
ests of  stronger  against  weaker  persons  and  railways. 

The  services  of  the  railways  in  creating  national  wealth,  in  develop- 
ing mines,  forests  and  fields,  and  then  advancing  their  products  into 
new  markets ;  in  equalizing  localities  and  constantly  cheapening  the 
charges  for  better  service,  surely  entitle  them  to  a  nation's  kindness 
rather  than  its  kicks. 

Whatever  they  may  have  done  which  was  wrong,  they  have  done 
more  good,  and  in  other  lands,  where  lesser  complications  make  the 
problem  easier,  all  and  more  than  we  ask  is  legalized. 

I  cannot  close  this  hurried  review  better  that  to  quote  from  Thomas 
M.  Cooley,  the  first  chairman  of  the  Interstate  commission,  who  said  in 
the  case  of  the  Omaha  Board  of  Trade  against  various  railways: 

"If  a  rate,  when  made  by  one  company  as  a  single  rate,  would  in  law  be  objectionable,  it 
would  be  equally  so  when  made  by  several  as  a  joint  rate.  The  policy  of  the  law  and  the  con- 
venience of  business  favor  the  making  of  joint  rates,  and  the  more  completely  the  whole  railroad 
system  of  the  country  can  be  treated  as  a  unit,  as  if  it  were  all  under  one  management,  the  greater 
will  be  the  benefit  of  its  service  to  the  public,  and  the  less  the  liability  to  unfair  exactions." 

Mr.  Chairman,  this  Commercial  Congress  should  unite  in  another 
purpose;  to  secure  clean  railway  finance  as  well  as  upright  banking 
accountability.  There  should  be  no  juggling  of  railway  accounts  any 
more  than  in  the  public  banking  statements. 

Both  should  be  alike  clear,  direct,  concise  and  true.  There  is  a 
good  old  word  to  which  all  action  should  aim — "Rectitude."  We 
should  act  within  its  comprehensive  meaning,  and  sustain,  and,  if  need-^ 
ful,  compel  its  observance.  There  should  be  no  more  speculative  per- 
version of  railway  incomes  by  their  officers  or  the  corporations  they 
represent,  than  of  bank  revenues.  With  mutual  cooperation  to  these 
two  conditions,  our  citadels  of  commerce  and  finance  will  become  as 
strong  as  the  limitations  of  human  judgment  will  permit,  and  public 
confidence  will  be  justified. 

Mr.  Chairman,  —  I  have  presented  these  questions,  although  hur- 
riedly, because  this  is  a  congress,  and  all  congresses  talk  on  all  sides. 
Friendly  contention  is  growth,  but  hostility  is  dwarfing.  Discussion  is 
knowledge  extended.  It  reaches  from  the  germ  and  the  atom  to  the 
locomotive  and  the  mine  in  the  mountain,  from  the  lens  to  the  star,  and 
from  the  widow's  mite  to  the  national  debt.  Aggregate  knowledge  is 
the  "World's  Fair." 

The  "White  City"  is  but  an  aggregation  of  thought  reasoned  into 
substances,  beauties,  utilities  and  forces.  It  was  the  wise  conception  of 
President  Bonney  that  reflective  discussion  would,  after  observation, 
stimulate  yet  more  forceful,  beautiful  and  useful  purposes  and  forms, 
and  thus  enhance  the  facilities  and  values  of  life.  This  is  not  only  true 
of  thought  related  to  visible  things,  but  of  that  higher  quality  of  the 


OPENING  ADDRESS.  15 

mind  which  limns  more  beautiful  and  useful  pictures  in  the  chambers 
of  contemplation  than  those  which  hang  in  the  galleries  of  art. 

These  congresses  are  therefore  meant  to  develop  better  models  in 
intellectual  and  upper  life  as  well  as  improved  shapes  of  iron,  wood 
and  marble.  In  that  respect,  its  place  among  world's  fairs  is  unique 
and  adds  to  the  superiority  which  marks  its  every  other  department. 

Mr.  President  and  Mr.  Chairman,  I  thank  you  again  for  our  craft. 
On  its  behalf  I  wish  for  each  of  your  departmental  congresses  an  abund- 
ant issue  of  success,  and  that  it  may  become  greater  hereafter  when 
your  discussions  in  these  few  swift  days  are  reflected  upon  at  the  desk 
and  the  fireside. 


OPENING  ADDRESS  AT  THE  RAILWAY  COMMERCE 
CONGRESS. 


BY  THE  CHAIRMAN,  MR.  GEORGE  R.  BLANCHARD. 


It  was  the  view  of  those  who  projected  this  series  of  meetings,  that 
there  should  be  an  exhibit  of  mind  as  well  as  matter,  in  halls  of  discus- 
sion as  well  as  display.  In  the  order  in  which  these  congresses  were 
appointed,  we  have  arrived  at  the  period  assigned  for  the  discussion  of 
railway  topics. 

The  list  of  the  subjects  and  the  gentlemen  assigned  to  their  consid- 
eration are  known  to  you.  You  will  find  thoughtful,  eminent  and 
practical  names  among  them,  and  I  am  sure  their  contributions  will  not 
only  have  an  immediate,  but  a  lasting  and  growing  value.  The 
intellectual  food  offered  you  will  furnish  viands  for  repeated  mental 
digestions  hereafter.  It  is  the  purpose  of  the  Railway  Congress  to 
publish  the  papers  submitted,  in  order  that  others  may  sit  at  renewals 
of  the  feast. 

I  cannot  pass  this  opportunity  to  say,  that  there  is  a  paucity  of 
standard  railway  literature  from  the  commercial  side  of  the  great 
question  —  its  relations  to  the  public,  to  legislatures  and  the  courts, 
which  the  papers  here  promised  will  do  much  to  supply.  Too  many 
of  the  surmises,  assertions  and  false  reasonings  and  conclusions  of  the 
unfair,  the  uneducated,  the  hostile,  and  of  political  clamorists  have  passed 
unchallenged.  This  has  continued  so  long  that  many  who  approached 
with  fair  minds  the  great  questions  and  problems  which  underlie  these 
general  public  averments,  have  concluded  that  we  lack  good  grounds  of 
rejoinder,  defense  and  proof.  In  this  respect,  we  are  at  fault.  We 
should  have  had  not  only  a  defensive  but  an  aggressive  railway  litera- 
ture—  opposing  facts  to  fancies  —  soundness  to  sound,  and  reasoning  to 
railing. 

I  know  there  are  many  who  dissent  from  the  value  of  such  publica- 
tions, because  of  the  smallness  of  the  leaven  compared  with  the  loaf. 
They  oppose  this  educational  view  with  gloomy  forebodings  of  the 
influence  of  designing  men  upon  the  electors,  with  the  aggressions  and 
demands  of  the  unprincipled,  and  with  suggestions  that  the  cause  can 
best  be  argued,  fought  and  announced  by   cases   carried  to   the  courts 


1 6  WORLDS  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

whose  findings  will  reach  larger  audiences  with  greater  weight  and 
conclusiveness.  Conceding  much  to  this  view,  every  convert  or  pros- 
elyte to  the  platform  of  justice,  alike  for  corporation  and  individual, 
becomes  an  aid  whose  influence  may  sometime  be  potent  in  important 
or  perhaps  critical  cases. 

I  presume  the  experience  of  others  who  have  written  on  these  sub- 
jects conforms  to  mine,  that  they  have  requests  from  debating  societies 
and  professors  and  classes  on  political  economy,  in  institutes  and  uni- 
versities, for  railway  publications  setting  forth  their  contentions,  argu- 
ments and  replies  in  such  issues.  These  men  go  to  business  or  juris- 
prudence or  to  state  legislatures  or  the  national  congress  where  their 
voices  will  become  heard,  and  possibly  potential.  They  may  be  in  the 
councils  of  cities,  sit  on  juries,  or  be  professors,  governors,  presidents, 
editors,  or  ambassadors.  Many  of  them  will  continue  sincere  students 
of  the  transportation  problem,  and,  in  so  far  as  their  younger  reflections 
or  convictions  are  attracted  to  our  views,  it  will  become  harder  hereafter 
to  impregnate  them  with  recantations  or  hostilities  —  many  who  are  now 
antagonistic  can  be  re-convinced  by  our  efforts.  Knowledge  is  a  seed 
which  bears  fruit  in  unexpected  places  —  by  roadsides  as  well  as  in 
broad  fields  —  in  alleys  as  well  as  colleges,  and  we  should  both  plant 
and  scatter  it. 

It  is  our  duty  to  our  calling  to  find  the  time  and  make  the  oppor- 
tunities to  this  end.  It  is  a  matter  of  regret  to  those  who  have  been 
charged  with  the  preparations  for  this  meeting,  and  the  procurement  of 
skilled  men  who  would  talk  to  these  purposes,  that  many  who  have 
contributed  papers  are  unable  to  be  present  in  person,  and  that  many 
others  invited  were  unable  to  assist  us  by  papers  or  their  attendance. 

The  world-wide  occasion  which  calls  us  together  is  also  the  reason 
why  many  cannot  be  here.  Their  duties  at  this  time  are  more  than 
usually  exacting  by  reason  of  this  great  Exposition  and  the  attention 
they  are  giving  to  the  safe  transit  of  persons  to  it.  For  those  who  are 
here,  our  thanks.     For  those  who  are  absent,  our  regrets. 

Gentlemen, — Whatever  your  number,  you  represent  392,000  miles 
of  the  world's  railways, — with  their  capital,  commerce,  public  relations, 
incomes,  outgoes,  advancements,  security  and  growths  ;  it  is  a  vast 
field  to  talk  in.  We  wish  more  of  our  trans-oceanic  friends  of  the 
calling  were  present.  Those  who  are  here  and  to  come  during  the  week 
have  already  discovered  the  national  latchstring  and  have  found  that  it 
opens  great  doors  to  American  friendliness,  cordiality,  consideration, 
and  commercial  brotherhood.  We  wish  them  to  think  so  the  more  from 
the  knowledge  of  our  calling, — and  in  your  name  we  welcome  them — 
193,000  of  the  392,000  miles,  or  a  majority  of  the  world's  railway  now 
in  operation,  connect  continuously  in  North  America,  and  it  devolves 
on  us  to  be  correspondingly  large  in  our  consideration  of  these  questions 
and  in  the  warmth  of  our  national  greetings. 

Ours  is  the  largest  human  calling,  judged  by  its  influence  on  the 
world,  as  witness  my  quotation  last  night  from  Bacon  and  Macaulay. 
To  paraphrase  Emerson,  We  blow  the  whistle  that's  heard  'round  the 
world,  and  all  peoples  stop  to  heed  and  welcome  it.  Its  resonance  is 
the  diplomacy  of  peace.  The  locomotive  bell  is  the  true  Liberty  bell, 
proclaiming  commercial  freedom.     Its  boilers  are  the  reservoirs  of  the 


OPENING  ADDRESS.  17 

forces  of  civilization.  Its  wheels  are  the  wheels  of  progress,  and  its 
headlight  is  the  illumination  of  dark  countries. 

Let  us  do  as  befits  such  benefits,  powers  and  opportunities.  This 
World's  Exposition  is  proof  of  them  all.  Essentially  without  our  craft 
its  palaces  would  never  have  arisen  and  its  halls  would  not  have  been 
filled  with  its  helps  to  every  material  and  artistic  betterment  for  life, 
and  the  fraternities  of  nations  would  have  been  longer  delayed.  We 
especially  should  look  upon  it  proudly  and  often  as  contributors  in  so 
large  a  sense  to  its  magnitude  and  magnificence.  I  will  not  detain  you 
with  any  review  of  our  growth  from  1828  to  193,000  miles  now.  You 
know  the  story  of  the  infant  and  the  giant  he  has  become  as  well  as 
do  I. 

And  now,  gentlemen,  I  will  pass  to  the  pleasanter  task  for  you  and 
me,  of  presenting  the  menu  and  introducing  the  chefs. 


I. 
RAILWAY  LAW  AND  LEGISLATION. 


CONSTITUTIONAL    GUARANTIES 

OF  RAILWAY  PROPERTIES,    FRANCHISES    AND  RATES 

AGAINST  LEGISLATIVE  SPOLIATION. 


HON.  JOHN    F.    DILLON,    GENERAL    COUNSEL   UNION    PACIFIC    RAILWAY 
COMPANY,  NEW    YORK,  N.  Y. 


At  the  close  of  the  year  1892  there  were  in  the  United  States  170,- 
601.18  miles  of  completed  railway,  having  a  capital  stock  liability  of 
over  four  and  three-quarter  billions,  and  a  funded  debt  liability  of  over 
five  billions  of  dollars.  In  the  earlier  periods  of  railway  construction  a 
very  few  of  the  states  lent  moderate  financial  aid  to  the  companies,  and 
at  a  later  period  counties  and  municipalities  have  also,  to  a  limited 
extent,  aided  in  the  construction  of  these  necessarily  expensive  improve- 
ments. In  general,  the  aid,  whether  by  states  or  municipalities,  has  not 
been  in  the  form  of  bounties  or  gratuities  to  the  companies,  but  by  way 
of  subscriptions  to  their  stock  or  bonds.  The  general  government  has 
made  grants  of  lands  to  certain  states  or  certain  companies  for  this  pur- 
pose ;  but  except  in  the  case  of  the  Central  Pacific  railroad  and  Union 
Pacific  railroad  company,  and  certain  of  its  connecting  branches,  form- 
ing part  of  the  Union  Pacific  system,  it  has  made  no  grant  of  money  for 
this  purpose ;  and  in  the  case  of  the  Central  and  Union  Pacific  com- 
panies the  government  has  secured  itself  by  a  lien  upon  the  railways 
for  its  bond  subsidy.  The  public  investment  in  railwa5^s  is  so  insignifi- 
cant, as  compared  with  their  cost,  as  scarcely  to  deserve  mention.  The 
important  fact  to  be  remembered  is,  that  the  immense  sums  of  money 
invested  in  railways  in  the  United  States,  over  ten  billions  of  dollars, 
has  been  furnished  almost  wholly  by  private  capital,  by  individuals  and 
not  by  the  public.  Another  important  fact  to  be  remembered  is,  that 
the  cost  of  these  works  is  so  great  that  the  money  necessary  for  their 
construction  could  not  have  been  obtained  otherwise  than  through  the 
agency  of  corporate  organizations. 

It  is  also  to  be  remembered,  that  as  the  legislative  policy  of  this 
country  finally  shaped  itself,  these  corporations  were  and  are  in  no  sense 
monopolies,  since  almost  every  state  of  the  union  has  adopted  what 
may  aptly  be  called  the  policy  of  "free  trade"  incorporations  ;  that  is 
to    say,  nearly  every    state    has    adopted    general    incorporating    acts, 

19 


20  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

whereby  any  number  of  men  may,  at  their  pleasure,  organize  themselves 
into  a  railway  company  to  build  a  railway  on  any  route  they  please 
without  substantial  restriction. 

Within  the  last  twenty  years,  that  is  to  say,  after  the  railway  system 
of  the  United  States  has  been  developed  to  the  full  needs  of  the  country, 
experience  has  shown  an  increasing  hostility  to  railways,  and  they  have 
been  subjected  to  public  attack,  obliquely  by  Congress,  and  directly  in  quite 
a  number  of  the  states,  chiefly  through  the  exercise  of  the  power  of  taxa- 
tion, and  the  exercise  of  what  goes  under  the  name  of  the  police  power 
of  the  state.  The  attempt,  in  the  former  case,  takes  the  form  of  inequality 
in  the  tax  laws,  intended  to  make  the  railways  pay  more  than  their  fair 
share  of  the  public  burdens.  In  the  latter  case  the  attempt  is  by  an 
unjust  regulation  and  restriction  of  rates  of  compensation  to  deprive  the 
companies  of  their  property,  or  of  some  portion  of  it,  or  of  its  full  and 
equal  possession  and  enjoyment.  About  twenty  states  of  the  Union, 
mostly  within  the  last  ten  years,  have  enacted  laws  by  which  the  legis- 
lature, in  a  few  instances,  has  itself  fixed  the  mamimum  rates  of  trans- 
portation, but  which,  in  general,  create  railway  commissions,  with 
authority  to  prescribe  rates.  In  some  of  these  enactments  it  has  been 
declared  that  rates  thus  prescribed  shall  be  conclusive  evidence  that 
they  are  fair  and  reasonable,  while  in  other  cases  it  is  declared  that  such 
rates  are  only  prima  facie  evidence  of  their  reasonableness  ;  thus  by 
implication  leaving,  in  case  of  controversy,  the  question  of  what  is  a 
reasonable  rate  to  the  determination  of  the  judicial  tribunals. 

The  ten  billions  par  value  of  the  shares  and  bonds  of  our  American 
railway  companies  are  held  by  multiplied  thousands  of  owners  in  all 
parts  of  the  globe.  These  are  in  reality  a  great  public  fund  in  which  a 
large  part  of  the  savings  of  the  people  is  invested  ;  and  every  holder  of 
an  American  railway  share  or  bond  is  directly  interested  in  the  subject 
of  this  paper,  viz.:     What  effective  guaranty,  if  any,  has  such 

HOLDER    AGAINST    LEGISLATIVE    INVASION     OR     DESTRUCTION     OF     HIS 

PROPERTY  ?  It  is  my  purpose  to  show  that  the  fourteenth  amendment 
of  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  protects  railway  properties,  fran- 
chises and  rates  from  legislative  spoliation  by  the  states,  and  that  the 
fifth  amendment  to  that  constitution,  in  connection  with  the  limited 
powers  of  the  general  government  under  the  federal  constitution,  gives 
like  protection  against  the  legislative  power  of  Congress. 

The  statesmen  who  founded  and  shaped  our  republican  institutions 
were  neither  visionaries  nor  socialists.  They  were  really  English  whigs, 
of  the  Chatham  and  Burke  school.  The  contest  with  England  did  not 
originate  in  any  sentimental  or  speculative  notions  of  the  rights  of  man, 
or  in  any  hostility  to  monarchy  or  the  form  of  the  English  government. 
The  colonies  made  but  a  single  issue,  namely,  that  they  ought  not  to  be 
taxed  by  a  parliament  in  which  they  were  not  represented.  This  con- 
test began  and  was  settled  years  before  the  French  Revolution,  and  had 
nothing  in  common  with  it.  The  colonies  claimed  nothing  but  English 
liberties,  and  wanted  nothing  beyond  Magna  Charta.  It  was  a  contest 
for  English  liberties.  So  they  regarded  it,  and  so  it  was  regarded  by 
their  friends  and  supporters  in  England.  Thus,  in  Burke's  address  to 
the  king  occurs  the  passage  on  the  subject,  which  Lord  Grenville  said 
•'  was  the  finest  that  Burke  ever  wrote— perhaps  the  finest  in  the  English 
language — beginning,    '  What,    gracious    sovereign,    is    the    empire  of 


GUARANTIES  OF  RAILWAY  PROPERTIES.  2i 

America  to  us,  or  the  empire  of  the  world,  if  we  lose  our  own  liberties?'  " 
(Life  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  American  Ed.,  Little,  Brown  &  Co., 
1853,  Vol.  IL,  p.  475).  As  in  the  English  revolution  James  II.  was 
declared  to  have  "abdicated,"  so  curiously  enough  in  the  indictment  of 
George  III.,  which  the  Declaration  of  Independence  really  is,  they 
asserted  that  he  "has  abdicated  his  government  here  by  declaring  us 
out  of  his  protection  and  waging  war  against  us."  Singular  abdication 
that  of  a  king,  who  was  at  the  time  fighting  his  accusers  with  his  com- 
bined armies  and  navies.  There  was  indeed  no  choice,  but  there  was, 
also,  no  general  inclination  to  found  the  new  governments  upon  any 
other  basis  than  the  sovereignty  of  the  people.  The  perils  as  well  as 
the  advantages  of  this  form  of  government,  unless  the  direct  exercise  of 
popular  power  should  be  restrained,  were  anxiously  felt.  This  was  the 
great  problem  to  be  solved.  And  in  this  consists  the  whole  rationale  of 
written  constitutions,  and  of  the  checks  and  limitations,  of  which  the 
constitutions  essentially  consist.  They  did  not  believe  men  to  be 
angels,  but  very  human.  Accordingly,  the  constitutions  which  they 
builded  are,  as  Professor  Bryce  forcibly  puts  it,  "  the  work  of  men  who 
believed  in  original  sin,  and  were  resolved  to  leave  open  to  transgressors 
no  door  which  they  could  possibly  shut,"  with  the  result  that  the  con- 
stitutions they  established,  "if  regarded  simply  in  their  legal  provisions, 
were  the  least  democratic  of  democracies."  (Bryce,  "  The  American 
Commonwealth,"  Vol.  I.,  pp.  299,  300). 

It  is  among  the  eternal  lessons  of  history,  which  they  well  knew, 
that  the  mass  of  the  people  were  subject  to  the  influence  of  supposed 
temporary  interests  and  of  "  violent  and  casual  forces,"  which  might  be 
in  conflict  with  their  own  vital  and  permanent  wellbeing.  The  devices 
which  our  constitutions  provide  to  prevent  precipitate  action  of  the 
popular  will  are  single  and  simple  in  principle,  but  elaborate,  though 
not  complex,  in  arrangement.  They  may  thus  be  grouped  and  shortly 
stated :  (a)  Three  coordinate  departments,  and  the  separation  and 
distribution  of  all  of  the  powers  of  the  government  into  these  depart- 
ments, each  checking  the  other ;  (b)  a  system  of  representation  with  a 
double  chamber,  each  a  check  on  the  other  ;  (c)  the  insertion  of  guar- 
anties of  primordial  and  fundamental  rights,  Magna  Charta  enlarged 
and  perfected,  into  the  constitution  ;  (d)  distribution  of  powers  between 
the  states  and  the  Federal  Union  ;  and  (e)  an  independent  judiciary, 
made  the  guardian  of  the  constitution,  with  the  crowning  power  and 
duty  to  declare  unconstitutional  statutes  to  be  void,  all  to  the  end  that 
there  may  be  secured  "a  government  of  laws  and  not  of  men." 

This  system  of  checks  and  balances,  which  the  framers  of  our  gov- 
ernment contrived,  and  which,  in  its  totality,  constitutes  our  constitu- 
tions, has  but  the  single  ultimate  purpose  of  curbing  the  unfettered 
exercise  of  the  popular  will,  and  it  demonstrates  how  thoroughly  they 
realized  the  dangerous  and  destructive  force  of  that  will,  if  it  were  not 
put  under  effective  restraints.  Unrestrained  it  would  be  (to  borrow  an 
illustration  from  Schiller)  like  the  path  of  the  lightning,  or  of  the  can- 
non ball  — 

"  Direct  it  flies  and  rapid ; 
Shattering  that  it  may  reach,  and  shattering  what  it  reaches." 

Restrained,  however,  blessings  attend  its  course,  and  it  answers  the 
description  that  follows  : 


2  2  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

"  But.  my  son,  the  road  human  beings  travel, 
That,  on  which  blessing  comes  and  goes,  doth  follow  , 
The  river's  course,  the  valley's  playful  windings ; 
Curves  round  the  corn-field  and  the  hill  of  vines, 
Honoring  the  holy  bounds  of  property' I 
And  thus,  secure,  though  late,  leads  to  its  end." 

The  Piccolomini,  Coleridge's  translation.  Act  I.,  Scene  IV. 

The  absolute  unique  feature  of  the  political  and  legal  institutions  of 
the  American  republic,  is  its  written  constitutions,  which  are  organic 
limitations,  whereby  the  people,  by  an  act  of  unprecedented  wisdom, 
have,  "  in  order  to  establish  justice,  to  promote  the  general  welfare,  and 
secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  themselves  and  their  posterity,"  p7'o- 
tected  themselves  against  themselves.  What  renders  this  the  more 
extraordinary  is  that  these  constitutions  are  self-imposed  restraints. 
The  spectacle  is  that  of  the  acknowledged  possessors  of  all  political 
power  voluntarily  circumscribing  and  limiting  the  plenary  and  unre- 
strained use  of  it.  History  affords  many  examples  where  the  holders 
of  political  power  have  been  forced  to  surrender  or  curtail  it  for  the 
general  good  ;  but  the  example  of  the  people,  constituting  the  American 
political  communities,  in  limiting,  by  their  own  free  will,  the  exercise  of 
their  own  power,  stood  alone  when  this  sublime  sacrifice  was  made,  and 
it  has  not  been  followed  in  any  country  in  Europe,  nor  successfully  put 
in  operation  elsewhere  than  in  the  United  States.  I  said  that  in  this 
way  the  people  had  protected  themselves  against  themselves  ;  and  this 
they  have  done,  by  making  the  constitution  in  reality  what,  in  its  sixth 
article,  it  expressly  declares  itself  to  be,  namely,  "  the  supreme  law  of 
the  land,  binding  the  judges  in  every  state,  anything  in  the  constitution 
or  laws  of  any  state  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding."  This  latter  pur- 
pose they  accomplished  by  providing  that  the  constitution  should  be 
interpreted  and  enforced  by  the  judiciary,  as  one  of  the  departments  of 
the  government  established  by  the  constitution,  and  that  the  judgment 
of  the  courts  thereon  should  be,  if  necessary,  carried  into  execution  by 
the  executive,  by  the  whole  power  of  the  state  (United  States  vs.  Lee, 
1 06  U.  S.  Rep.  196). 

The  great  fundamental  rights  guaranteed  by  the  constitutions  are  life, 
liberty,  contracts  and  property.  The  two  former  are  everywhere  respected 
and  protected  by  the  legislatures  and  the  courts.  I  recall  only  one  nota- 
ble exception  to  this  statement,  and  that  is  found  in  the  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania,  affirmed  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  that  the  legislature  could  constitutionally  prevent  a  man 
from  pursuing  what  was,  in  fact,  a  lawful  business,  namely,  the  manu- 
facture and  sale  of  oleomargarine.  But  we  cannot  close  our  eyes  to  the 
fact  that,  to  some  extent,  the  inviolability  of  contracts,  and  especially 
of  private  property,  is  menaced,  both  by  open  and  covert  attacks. 
Property  is  attacked  openly  by  the  advocates  of  the  various  heresies 
that  go  under  the  general  name  of  socialism  or  communism,  who  seek 
to  array  the  body  of  the  community  against  individual  right  to  exclusive 
property,  in  some  form  to  deprive  the  owner  of  it  or  of  its  full  posses- 
sion and  enjoyment. 

Property,  or  the  full  measure  of  its  rightful  enjoyment,  is  also 
covertly  invaded,  not  by  the  socialist,  but  at  the  instance  of  a  supposed 
popular  demand  ;  in  which  case  the  attack  is  directed  against  particular 
owners  or  particular  forms  of  ownership,  and  generally  takes  the 
insidious,  more  specious,  and  dangerous  shape  of  an  attempt  to  deprive 


G  UARANTIES  OF  RAIL  WA  V  PROPER  TIES.  2  3 

the  owners  —  usually  corporate  owners  —  of  their  property,  by  unjust  or 
discriminating  legislation,  in  the  exercise  of  the  power  of  taxation,  or 
of  eminent  domain,  or  of  that  elastic  power  known  as  the  police  power 
—  such  legislation  resulting,  and  intended  to  result,  in  "clipping"  the 
property,  or  "regulating"  the  owner  out  of  its  full  enjoyment  and  use. 
Among  the  people  of  our  race  the  era  of  the  despotism  of  the  monarch 
or  of  an  oligarchy  has  passed  away.  If,  however,  we  are  not  struck 
with  judicial  blindness,  we  cannot  fail  to  see  that  what  is  now  to  be 
feared  and  guarded  against,  is  the  despotism  of  the  many  —  of  the 
majority.  Speaking  of  Great  Britain,  Sir  Frederick  Pollock  recently 
said,  that  "  at  no  time  has  it  been  fitter  for  us  to  be  put  in  mind  that 
the  effective  power  of  law  is  not  only  the  work,  but  the  test  of  a  civilized 
commomuealth,  and  that  law,  as  a  great  English  writer  has  said,  is,  in 
its  nature,  contrary  to  such  forces  and  operations  as  are  '  violent  and 
casual.'"  (Oxford  Lectures,  and  Other  Discourses ;  Lecture  IV.,  p. 
100).  So,  before  the  kingly  office  was  separated  from  the  judicial 
office,  David  prayed  :  "  Give  the  King  thy  judgments,  O  God,  that 
they  may  come  down  like  rain  into  a  fleece  of  wool,  even  as  the  drops 
that  water  the  earth  ;  "  that  is  to  say,  gently,  like  the  fertilizing  rain, 
and  not  violently,  like  the  destructive  deluge.  (Psalm  Ixxii.,  version  of 
the  English  Prayer  Book), 

All  of  the  original  states,  in  their  first  constitutions  and  charters,  care- 
fully provided  for  the  security  of  private  property,  as  well  as  of  life  and 
liberty.  This  they  did  either  by  adopting,  in  terms,  the  famous  thirty- 
ninth  article  of  Magna  Charta,  securing  the  people  from  arbitrary 
imprisonment  and  arbitrary  spoliation,  or  by  claiming  for  themselves, 
compendiously,  all  of  the  liberties  and  rights  set  out  in  the  Great 
Charter.  (All  of  the  constitutions  of  the  forty-four  states  contain  like 
provisions.  Mr.  Bryce,  in  his  chapter  on  the  "  Development  of  State 
Constitutions  ["American  Commonwealth,"  Vol.  I.,  Chap,  xxxviii.],  did 
not  fail  to  perceive  that,  "  they  show  a  wholesome  anxiety  to  protect 
and  safeguard  private  property  in  every  way.  *  *  The  only  excep- 
tions to  this  rule  are  to  be  found  in  the  case  of  anything  approaching  a 
monopoly,  and  in  the  case  of  wealthy  corporations.") 

I  make  this  statement  as  to  the  action  of  the  original  states,  after  a 
careful  examination  of  their  charters  and  constitutions.  On  the  admis- 
sion into  the  union  of  subsecjuent  states,  the  constitution  of  each  con- 
tained similar  provisions. 

When  the  federal  constitution  was  formed  there  was  inserted  in  it 
the  provision,  also  original  and  unique,  ''that  no  state  shall  pass  any 
law  impairing  the  obligation  of  contracts y  (Art.  I,  Sec.  10.)  Encroach- 
ments from  the  general  government  were  feared,  and  this  fear  led  to 
the  speedy  adoption  of  the  first  amendments  to  the  constitution. 
Justice  Miller,  in  the  Slaughter  House  cases,  says  :  "  The  adoption  of 
the  first  eleven  amendments  to  the  constitution,  so  soon  after  the  origi- 
nal instrument  was  accepted,  shows  a  prevailing  sense  of  danger  at  that 
time  from  the  federal  power."  These  amendments  were  promised  and 
insisted  upon.  "  I  hope,"  said  Jefferson,  "  that  a  Declaration  of  Rights 
will  be  drawn  up  to  protect  the  people  against  the  federal  government, 
as  they  are  already  protected  in  most  cases  against  the  state  govern- 
ment." 

The  fifth  amendment  inter  alia,  ordained   that,    "  No  perso7i  shall 


24  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

be  deprived  of  life,  liberty,  or  property,  without  due  pjvcess  of  law  ;  nor 
shall  private  property  be  taken  for  public  tcse  without  just  compensa- 
tion.'' 

This  was  not  new  language,  or  language  of  uncertain  meaning.  It 
was  taken  purposely  from  Magna  Charta.  It  was  language,  not  only 
memorable  in  its  origin,  but  it  had  stood  for  more  than  live  centuries  as 
the  classic  expression,  and  as  the  recognized  bulwark  of  "  the  ancient 
and  inherited  rights  of  Englishmen,"  to  be  secure  in  their  personal 
liberty  and  in  their  possessions.  (Burke,  Vol.  III.,  "  Reflections  on  the 
Revolution  in  France,"  pp.  272,  273,  American  Ed.,  Little,  Brown  & 
Co.)  It  was,  moreover,  language  which  shone  resplendent  with  the 
light  of  universal  justice  ;  and  for  these  reasons  it  was  selected  to  be 
put  into  the  fifth  amendment  of  the  federal  constitution,  as  it  had 
already  been  put  into  the  charters  and  constitutions  of  the  several 
states.  Thus  we  see  a  general,  fixed,  and  settled  purpose,  in  both  the 
state  and  federal  constitutions,  to  protect  and  secure  personal  liberty, 
contracts  and  private  property. 

With  these  guarantees  —  life,  liberty,  the  inviolability  of  contracts, 
and  the  sacredness  of  private  property  —  the  republic  set  out  on  its 
untried  course.  One  hundred  years  and  more  have  vindicated  the 
necessity,  and  demonstrated  the  wisdom  of  these  orglanic  limitations. 
Their  wisdom  is  no  longer  a  matter  of  speculation  and  conjecture  but 
of  history. 

The  result  of  the  provision  ordaining  contracts  to  be  inviolable,  has 
been,  says  Mr.  Justice  Miller  (Michigan,  Ann  Arbor  Address,  1887; 
Miller  on  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  page  393):  "To  make 
void  innumerable  acts  of  state  legislatures,  intended,  in  times  of  disas- 
trous financial  depression  and  suffering,  to  protect  from  the  hardships  of 
a  rigid  and  prompt  enforcement  of  the  law  in  regard  to  their  contracts, 
and  to  prevent  the  states  from  repealing  or  abrogating  or  avoiding,  by 
legislation,  contracts  fairly  entered  into  with  other  parties."  Hundreds 
of  acts  of  state  legislation  have  been  declared  void,  under  this  clause, 
by  the  Supreme  Court,  and  repudiation,  whether  intended  or  uninten- 
tional, with  its  consequent  dishonor,  prevented.  Who  is  not  glad  that 
the  states,  or  the  people  of  the  states,  have  not  had  the  power  to 
destroy  or  impair  contracts? 

So,  likewise,  the  provisions  in  the  state  and  national  constitutions, 
protecting  private  property,  have,  up  to  this  time,  been  effective.  If 
disregarded  by  the  legislature,  they  have  been  enforced  by  the  courts 
—  the  constitution  being  the  ^z//^r<?w^  law.  These  have  been,  indeed, 
the  great  triumphs  of  our  popular  system  of  government,  for  these  were 
supposed  to  be  its  vulnerable  spots.  Disbelievers  in  republican  institu- 
tions had  predicted  early  shipwreck  on  these  rocks,  and  when  it  came 
not,  they  simply  postponed  the  period  of  fulfillment.  See,  for  example, 
Allison,  in  his  famous  chapter  XC.  of  "History  of  Europe,"  published 
in  1839-1842. 

These  prophecies  have  happily  hitherto  proved  false, —  so  histor- 
ically and  signally  false,  that  as  strong  an  unbeliever  in  popular  govern- 
ment as  Sir  Henry  Maine,  speaking  of  the  American  Union  and  its 
unexampled  career,  was  constrained,  in  1885,  to  confess  and  declare 
that,— 


G  UARANTIES  OF  RAIL  WA  V  PR OPER  TIES.  2  5 

"  All  this  beneficent  prosperity  reposes  on  the  sacredness  of  contract  and  the  stability  of 
private  property ;  the  first  the  implement,  and  the  last  the  reward,  of  success  in  the  universal 
competition." 

(  Essay  on  Popular  Government,  p.  51,  American  Ed.) 
For  this  frank  and  candid  utterance  of  a  truth  which  forced  itself 
upon  his  convictions,  I  forgive  all  his  doubts  as  to  the  success  of  popu- 
lar government,  and  cancel  the  remembrance  of  his  dismal  forebodings. 
Then  came,  as  a  result  of  the  Civil  War  of  1861-1865,  the  four- 
teenth amendment  of  the  federal  constitution,  which,  among  other 
things,  ordained, — 

Section  i  .  "  Nor  shall  any  state  deprive  any  person  of  life,  liberty  or  property,  without  due 
process  of  law;  nor  deny  to  any  person  within  its  jurisdiction,  the  equal  protection  of  the  laws." 

It  was  of  set  purpose  that  its  prohibitions  were  directed  to  any  and 
every  form  and  mode  of  state  action  —  whether  in  the  shape  of  consti- 
tutions, statutes  or  judicial  judgments— -that  deprived  any  person, 
white  or  black,  natural  or  corporate,  of  life,  liberty  or  property,  or  of 
the  equal  protection  of  the  laws.  Its  value  consists  in  the  great  funda- 
mental principles  of  right  and  justice  which  it  embodies  and  makes 
part  of  the  organic  law  of  the  nation.  No  person  is  wise  enough  to 
foresee  the  beneficence  of  the  future  operation  of  these  principles,  if  the 
courts  are  true  and  firm  in  maintaining  this  amendment  in  its  full  scope 
and  purpose.  I  believe  it  will  hereafter,  more  fully  than  at  present,  be 
regarded  as  the  American  complement  of  the  Great  Charter,  and  be  to 
us, —  as  the  Great  Charter  was  and  is  to  England, —  the  source  of 
perennial  blessings. 

The  fourteenth  amendment,  while  it  does  not  deprive  the  states 
of  their  autonomy  or  their  power,  subject  to  the  federal  constitution,  to 
regulate  their  domestic  concerns,  does  nevertheless,  in  the  vital  matters 
specified  in  that  amendment,  operate  as  an  express  limitation  upon  the 
powers  of  the  states.  It  puts  life,  liberty,  and  property  upon  precisely 
the  same  footing  of  security.  It  binds  them  each  and  all  indissolubly 
together.  It  places  each  and  all  of  these  primordial  rights  under  the 
cCgis  and  protection  of  the  national  government.  By  this  provision 
they  are  each  and  all  adopted  as  national  rights.  Under  the  fifth 
amendment  they  are  each  protected  from  invasion  by  Congress  or  the 
federal  government.  By  the  fourteenth  amendment  they  are  each 
protected  from  invasion  by  state  legislatures,  or  by  the  people  of  the 
states  in  any  form  in  which  they  may  attempt  to  exercise  political 
power.  If  these  rights  are  not  safe  and  secure,  it  is  because,  and  only 
because,  of  the  essential  infirmity  of  constitutional  limitations  of  the 
most  peremptory  character.  This  we  cannot  admit.  The  fourteenth 
amendment,  in  the  most  impressive  and  solemn  form,  places  life,  liberty, 
contracts  and  property,  and  also  equality  before  the  law,  among  the 
fundamental  and  indestructible  rights  of  all  the  people  of  the  United 
States. 

It  sets  the  seal  of  national  condemnation  upon  Proudon's  famous 
maxim  that  "property  is  theft"  i^la  propriete  c  est  le  vol\.  "Property 
holders  are  thieves."  This  pernicious  doctrine  has  hitherto  found  no 
general  acceptance  among  our  people  or  their  legislators  ;  and  under 
the  constitution  as  it  now  stands  this  doctrine  can  obtain  no  foothold  as 
to  any  species  of  property, —  if  the  courts  are  faithful  to  their  high 
trust  as  the  guardians  and  defenders  of  the  constitution.  Bear  in 
mind  ever  that  this,  like  all  other  provisions  of  the  constitution,  was 


2  6  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

put  into  the  constitution  "  to  be  enforced  by  the  judiciary  as  one  of  the 
departments  of  the  government  estabhshed  by  the  constitution." 

(United  States  vs.  Lee,  io6  U.  S.  Rep.  196). 

The  value,  however,  of  these  constitutional  guarantees,  wholly 
depends  upon  whether  they  are  fairly  interpreted,  and  justly  and  with 
even  hand,  fully  and  fearlessly  enforced  by  the  courts. 

If  there  is  any  problem  which  can  be  said  to  be  yet  unsettled,  it  is 
whether  the  bench  of  this  country,  state  and  federal,  is  able  to  bear 
the  great  burden  of  supporting  under  all  circumstances  the  fundamental 
law  against  popular,  or  supposed  popular,  demands  for  enactments  in 
conflict  with  it. 

Commenting  on  Munn  vs.  Illinois  and  the  Legal  Tender  cases. 
Professor  Dicey  says :  "  In  no  country  has  greater  skill  been  expended 
in  constituting  an  august  and  impressive  national  tribunal  than  in  the 
United  States.  Moreover,  the  guardianship  of  the  constitution  is  con- 
fided not  only  to  the  Supreme  Court,  but  to  every  judge  throughout  the 
land.  Still  it  is  manifest  that  even  the  Supreme  Court  can  hardly  sup- 
port the  duties  imposed  upon  it."  "  Lectures  on  the  Law  of  the  Con- 
stitution," (Lecture  IV.  p.  163).  It  is  the  loftiest  function  and  the  most 
sacred  duty  of  the  judiciary, —  unique  in  the  history  of  the  world, — to 
support,  maintain  and  give  full  effect  to  the  constitution  against  every 
act  of  the  legislature  or  the  executive  in  violation  of  it.  This  is  the 
great  jewel  of  our  liberties.  We  must  not,  "like the  base  Judasan,  throw 
a  pearl  away  richer  than  all  his  tribe."  This  is  the  only  breakwater 
against  the  haste  and  the  passions  of  the  people, —  against  the  tumult- 
uous ocean  of  democracy.     It  must  at  all  costs  be  maintained. 

Having  thus  discussed  this  important  subject  upon  the  general  prin- 
ciples which  it  seems  to  me  to  belong  to  it,  and  by  which  it  must  be 
governed,  let  me  now  refer  to  the  opinions  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
LTnited  States  relating  thereto,  and  endeavor  to  ascertain  how  far  up  to 
this  time  these  views  have  the  authoritative  sanction  of  that  tribunal. 
Taking  all  of  these  decisions  together,  it  is  my  judgment  that  they  do 
not  warrant  the  criticism  of  Professor  Dicey  above  mentioned. 

The  scope  and  limitations  of  the  legislative  power  of  the  states  over 
railway  tariff  have  been  considered  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  in  six  or  seven  cases  —  commencing  in  1876  with  Munn  vs.  Illi- 
nois, and  the  Granger  cases  (91  U.S.  11 3- 181)  and  ending  with  the 
Michigan  Passenger  Rate  case  in  1892  (143  U.S.  339).*  I  have  made 
a  careful  study  of  these  cases.  I  understand  that  these  decisions  affirm 
and  establish  the  following  principles.  • 

As  to  railways  created  by  a  state,  or  doing  business  in  a  state  under 
state  authority,  the  several  states,  as  respects  interstate  commerce,  are 
without  any  authority  whatever  to  touch  or  regulate  the  same  in  any 
degree.  As  to  domestic  commerce  —  that  is,  such  as  "begins  and  ends 
within  a  state,  disconnected  from  a  continuous  transportation  through 

*The  following  are  the  more  important  cases  directly  relating  to  or  bearing  upon  the  subject 
decided  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States : 
The  Granger  cases  (gi  U.S.,  113). 

The  California  Spring  Valley  Water  Works  case  (no U.S.,  347). 
Mississippi  Railroad  Commission  cases  (116  U.S.,  307). 
Wabash  Railway  case  (118  U.S.,  557) : 
The  Arkansas  case  (Dow  vs.  Beidelman,  125  U.S.,  680). 
Minnesota  case  (134  U.S.,  418). 
New  York  Elevator  case  (143  U.S.,  517). 
Michigan  Passenger  Rate  case  (143  U.S.,  339). 


G  UAKANTIES  OF  RAIL  WA  V  PROPER  TIES.  2  7 

or  into  other  states  "  ( 1 18  U.  S.,  p.  564  )  — the  state  may  establish  max- 
imum rates  of  charges,  either  immediately  by  legislative  act,  or  medi- 
ately through  a  commission,  but  this  power  is  not  unlimited,  but,  like 
all  other  legislative  powers,  is  subject  to  the  prohibitions  of  the  consti- 
tution of  the  United  States,  and  particularly  to  those  of  the  fourteenth 
amendment.  The  constitutional  limitation  is  that  the  rates  thus  fixed, 
although  they  are  prima  facie  valid,  because  presumptively  reasonable, 
are  nevertheless  void  if  the  carrier  affected  thereby  can  establish  in  the 
proper  judicial  proceedings  that  they  are  unreasonable.  The  question 
of  reasonableness  or  unreasonableness  is  in  all  cases  "  ultimately  a 
judicial  question  requiring  due  process  of  law  for  its  determination"  — 
that  is,  judicial  investigation  in  a  suit  in  the  courts  of  justice  "  under 
the  forms  and  with  the  machinery  provided  by  the  wisdom  of  successive 
ages  for  the  investigation  judicially  of  the  truth  of  a  matter  in  contro- 
versy." It  is  not  competent,  therefore,  for  the  state  to  enact  that  the 
rates  fixed  by  a  commission,  whether  fixed  ex  parte  or  after  notice  and 
investigation,  are  conclusive  or  final,  for  such  an  act  would  be  uncon- 
stitutional, because  it  denies  to  the  company  due  process  of  law, 
and  by  "  depriving  it  of  the  lawful  use  of  its  property  it,  in  substance  and 
effect,  deprives  it  of  the  property  itself,  and  of  the  equal  protection  of  the 
laws"  (134  U.S.  458),  contrary  to  the  express  provisions  of  the  four- 
teenth amendment  and  the  fundamental  principles  of  American  liberty. 

The  leading  case  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  is  the 
well  known  Minnesota  case  (Chicago,  &c.  Ry.  Co.  vs.  Minnesota,  134 
U.S.  418,  1889).  In  that  case  it  is  declared  in  the  opinion  that,  "The 
question  of  the  reasonableness  of  a  rate  or  charge  for  transportation  by 
a  railroad  company,  involving,  as  it  does,  the  element  of  reasonable- 
ness, both  as  regards  the  company  and  as  regards  the  public,  is  emi- 
nently a  question  for  judicial  investigation,  requiring  due  process  of  law 
for  its  determination.  If  the  company  is  deprived  of  the  power  of 
charging  reasonable  rates  for  the  use  of  its  property,  and  such  depriva- 
tion takes  place  in  the  absence  of  an  investigation  by  judicial  machin- 
ery, it  is  deprived  of  the  lawful  use  of  its  property,  and  thus,  in  sub- 
stance and  effect,  of  the  property  itself,  without  due  process  of  law  and 
in  violation  of  the  constitution  of  the  United  States ;  and  in  so  far  as  it 
is  thus  deprived,  while  other  persons  are  permitted  to  receive  reason- 
able profits  upon  their  invested  capital  the  company  is  deprived  of  the 
equal  protection  of  the  laws."     (  P.  548). 

Notwithstanding  the  decisions  in  the  New  York  Elevator  case 
(Budd  vs.  New  York,  143  U.  S.  517,  1891),  subsequently  made,  it  is 
my  deliberate  judgment  that  the  great,  fundamental,  constitutional 
principles  laid  down  in  the  Minnesota  case  stand  to  this  day  without 
impeachment,  question,  or  qualification  in  anything  before  or  since 
decided  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

PRINCIPLES  ESTABLISHED  BY  THE  MINNESOTA  CASE  SUMMARIZED. 

These  principles  are,  that  legislative  regulation  of  fares  and  rates, 
whatever  its  scope,  is  limited  by  the  line  of  reasonableness ;  that  if 
unreasonable,  they  deprive  the  company  of  its  property  without  due 
process  of  law,  and  that  the  question  whether  they  are  unreasonable, 
is  a  judicial  question  which  must  be  decided  in  a  suit  upon  pleadings 
and  issues,  and  upon  proofs,  by  the  judicial  tribunals. 


28  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

These  are,  let  me  repeat,  fundamental  principles  of  constitutional 
liberty  and  right.  They  deserve  the  noble  panegyric  which  Lord 
Chatham  pronounced  upon  Magna  Charta,  the  Petition,  of  Rights  and 
Bill  of  Rights,  when  he  called  them  "  the  Bible  of  the  English  Consti- 
tution." They  are,  indeed,  vital  to  the  security  of  the  billions  of 
capital  invested  by  the  invitation  and  authority  of  the  states  in  these 
useful  and  necessary  public  enterprises.  But  they  are  inexpressibly 
more  vital,  not  only  to  the  honor,  but  the  permanent  well-being  of  the 
states  themselves.  Justice  is  the  only  foundation  for  individual  or 
public  prosperity.  It  is  not  possible  that  any  state,  in  the  long  run, 
can  derive  any  advantage  ;  it  is  certain,  in  the  long  run,  that  any  state 
will  suffer  incalculable  injury  from  the  doctrine  that  a  majority  of  its 
legislature,  in  an  hour  of  passion  or  frenzy  or  gust  of  popular  prejudice 
or  opinion,  has  unlimited  power  over  any  species  of  property  or  over 
the  rights  of  property  owners.  Such  notions  are  alien  to  our  traditional 
ideas  of  constitutional  and  natural  rights.  What  more  just  than  the 
doctrine  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  Minnesota  case  ;  just  to  the  state 
representing  the  public  on  the  one  hand,  and  just  to  the  owners  of  the 
railway  properties  on  the  other.  That  doctrine  is  that  the  legislature 
may  effectively  secure  just  and  reasonable  rates  for  the  public.  What 
more  can  the  public  ask  ?  That  doctrine  also  is  that  the  legislature 
cannot  fix  or  authorize  rates  which  are  unreasonable  or  unjust  to  the 
railway  proprietor,  provided  that  such  proprietor  can,  on  a  trial  in  the 
courts  of  the  land,  establish  such  rates  to  be  unreasonable  and  unjust. 
Nothing  less  than  this  can  be  conceded  to  the  owners  of  railway 
properties  unless  such  owners  are  to  be  selected  from  other  property 
owners  for  outlawry ;  that  is,  placed  beyond  the  pale  of  constitutional 
protection,  and  their  property  doomed  to  confiscation. 

I  make  no  apology  for  the  length  of  this  address.  The  trans- 
cendent importance  of  the  questions  involved  justifies  even  a  fuller 
discussion  than  the  necessary  limits  of  this  occasion  allow. 

They  vitally  concern  every  railway  company  in  the  United  States, 
and  every  shareholder  and  bondholder  of  American  railways  wherever 
he  may  live. 

It  is  to  me  a  consolatory  and  cheering  reflection  that  I  have  been 
able  to  vindicate  the  wisdom  and  efficiency  of  the  constitutional 
guarantees  of  private  property,  and  to  show  that  railway  companies 
are  not  subject  to  be  despoiled  either  by  Congress  or  state  legislatures, 
since  the  power  of  Congress  must  be  exercised  subject  to  the  limita- 
tions of  the  federal  constitution  and  of  the  fifth  amendment  thereto, 
and  since  the  power  of  the  states  to  regulate  and  fix  railway  tariffs 
must  be  exercised  subject  to  the  fourteenth  amendment ;  that  if  the 
rates  thus  fixed  are  unreasonable  or  unjust  they  are  void,  and  that  the 
question  whether  they  are  unreasonable  or  unjust  is  a  judicial  question 
to  be  determined  by  the  courts,  and  ultimately  by  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  under,  and  in  accordance  with,  the  general  laws  of 
the  land,  and  the  traditional  and  immutable  principles  of  justice  which 
are  embodied  in  our  organic  laws. 


PROTECTION  OF  PUBLIC  RIGHTS,  29 


THE  PROPER  PROTECTION  OF  THE  PUBLIC  RIGHTS  AND 
INTERESTS  INVOLVED  IN  RAILWAY 
*       COMMERCE. 


HON.    W.    G.    VEAZEY,    MEMBER     INTERSTATE    COMMERCE     COMMISSION, 
WASHINGTON,    D.    C. 


The  public  function  which  every  common  carrier  by  rail  assumes, 
carries  with  it  the  obligation  to  refrain  from  extortion  and  unjust  dis- 
crimination. It  requires  no  technical  Icnowledge  or  discriminating 
consideration  of  varying  commercial  conditions  or  methods  of  carriers, 
to  express  by  judicial  utterance  in  particular  cases,  or  to  provide 
generally  in  statute  law,  that  public  carriage  shall  be  conducted  on  the 
basis  of  fairness  and  equality.  The  real  difficulty  is  encountered  in 
the  attempt  to  so  effectually  apply  such  general  principles  to  the  move- 
ment of  property  and  persons  that  infringements  thereof  will  be  as 
exceptional  as  violations  of  specific  laws  regulating  other  subjects  of 
national  concern.  Stated  more  definitely,  the  railway  problem  of 
today  is  this  :  How  can  the  business  of  transportation  be  so  conducted 
and  regulated  that  reasonable  and  relatively  equal  charges  and  facili- 
ties will,  as  a  rule,  be  assured  to  every  shipper  and  passenger  at  the 
time  the  service  is  rendered,  and  at  the  same  time  the  just  rights  of 
the  carriers  be  preserved  ?  The  conduct  of  railway  commerce  under 
regulations  which  preserve  this  equilibrium  of  rights  is  obviously  the 
end  which  will  best  promote  the  public  interest.  While  some  railway 
experts  and  economic  writers  urge  that  it  is  impossible  of  attainment, 
there  are  others  who,  observing  and  appreciating  the  wonderful 
development  of  railway  operation,  and  believing  that  its  possibilities 
have  not  yet  been  even  apprehended,  hold  to  the  contrary  view.  Pro- 
gressive management,  improved  transportation  methods,  and  the  opera- 
tion of  state  and  federal  laws,  have  together  already  brought  the 
railway  service  to  a  degree  of  order  and  reliability  which  has  resulted 
in  immeasurable  benefit  to  the  public  at  large,  but  much  yet  remains 
to  be  accomplished  in  the  direction  of  transportation  reform. 

Twenty-five  years  ago  practically  all  the  railway  mileage  in  the 
United  States,  then  about  35,000  miles,  was  constructed  east  of  the 
Mississippi  river.  The  establishment  of  an  iron  highway  through  any 
section  was  still  regarded  as  an  unmixed  public  blessing,  and  he  who 
refused  to  give  it  a  right  of  way  through  his  land  or  the  locality  which 
declined  to  assume  large  indebtedness  for  its  construction  and  equip- 
ment, was  condemned  as  lacking  in  public  spirit.  The  only  railway 
problem  of  that  day  was  how  to  secure  more  railways.  Later,  when 
phenomenal  railroad  building  had  practically  annihilated  distance,  had 
established  competitive  relations  between  localities  which  before  were 


30  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

safely  independent  of  each  other,  and  thereby  reduced  the  profits  of 
traders  and  producers  to  such  small  margins  that  the  favor  of  the  roads 
meant  wealth  if  granted  and  ruin  if  withheld,  then  the  railway  problem 
took  on  something  of  its  present  character,  and  then  began  that  agita- 
tion of  public  opinion  throughout  the  land  which  continued  for  nearly 
a  decade,  grew  in  intensity  with  the  abnormal  construction  and  com- 
mercial development  of  that  period,  and  culminated  in  the  congres- 
sional enactment  of  1887.  The  record  of  railway  building,  railway 
operation,  land  improvement,  manufacturing  enterprise,  mining  industry 
and  trade  development  in  the  United  States  from  about  the  close  of  the 
rebellion  to  the  year  1887,  presents  a  history  of  progress  unparalleled 
in  the  annals  of  nations ;  and  the  stupendous  expenditure  of  energy 
and  capital  in  the  separate  development,  during  twenty  years,  of  such 
related  forces  as  transportation,  agriculture,  manufacture,  mining  and 
trade,  created  the  conditions  which  resulted  in  the  federal  statute  of 
that  year. 

What  has  been  accomplished  in  the  direction  of  protecting  public 
interests  under  the  operation  of  that  act  is  recent  history.  The  com- 
mercial chaos  and  irreparable  losses  which  would  result  if  it  should  be 
erased  from  the  statute  books  cannot  be  estimated.  The  discrimina- 
tions, the  extortions,  the  almost  total  dependence  of  trade  upon  trans-" 
portation  favor,  which  existed  prior  to  1887,  and  caused  the  people  to 
demand  federal  regulation,  would,  in  case  of  such  repeal,  be  vastly 
increased  according  to  the  greater  volume  of  business,  still  closer  trade 
margins,  additional  number  of  competing  localities  and  augmented 
railway  mileage. 

We  now  have  nearly  175,000  miles  of  railroad,  almost  one-half  of 
the  total  rail  mileage  of  the  world  ;  the  number  of  persons  directly 
connected  with  railway  transportation  is  from  the  latest  reports  about 
800,000,  and  it  is  estimated  that  the  number  of  those  who  directly  or 
indirectly  derive  their  support  from  the  operation  of  railways  is  nearly, 
if  not  fully  4,000,000  ;  the  capitalized  value  of  our  railroad  property 
is  not  far  from  ten  billions  of  dollars,  or  about  one-sixth  of  the  total 
value  of  all  real  and  personal  property  of  the  United  States,  and  the 
total  gross  earnings  of  railways  during  the  year  ending  with  June, 
1892,  for  carrying  562,719,926  passengers  and  763,960,042  tons  of 
freight,  amounted  in  round  figures  to  about  one  and  one  quarter  billions 
of  dollars. 

Such  a  statement  of  industrial  results  tells  an  amazing  story  of 
daring  enterprise,  mammoth  investment  and  prodigious  achievement  ; 
of  a  vast  population  engaged  in  producing  and  trading  throughout  an 
immense  area ;  and  of  a  fabulous  commerce  which  paid  for  movement 
in  a  single  year  an  amount  exceeding  the  aggregate  banking  capital  of 
the  nation.  Such  a  statement  also  demonstrates  the  interdependence 
of  transportation,  production,  finance  and  trade,  and  that  laws  or  busi- 
ness methods  which  oppress  either  of  these  great  commercial  divisions 
or  portions  of  the  public  engaged  therein  have  evil  effect  upon  all. 

While  the  carriage  of  persons  and  property  in  vehicles  wheeled  at 
great  speed  over  metal  bands  by  mechanical  power  was  still  the  excep- 
tional means  of  communication  and  enjoyed  by  comparatively  few 
portions  of  the  country,  railway  favor  and  heedless  railway  manage- 
ment had  not  then  so  affected   the  other  branches  of  industry  as  to 


PROTECTION  OF  PUBLIC  RIGHTS.  31 

become  a  subject  of  general  public  concern.  But  as  roads  were  pushed 
through  undeveloped  regions  ;  as  places  and  localities  grew  into 
producing  and  distributing  centers  ;  as  competing  lines  began  to  con- 
tend for  the  carrying  trade  of  communities  ;  as  cost  of  carriage 
decreased  with  the  improvement  of  roads,  equipment  and  management, 
and  commodities  from  every  section  became  able  to  compete  for  sale 
in  every  market,  so,  in  like  degree,  each  community  and  each  shipper 
became  more  interested  not  only  in  the  charges  they  must  pay  for 
railroad  transportation,  but  in  the  charges  and  services  rendered  to 
every  competing  community  and  shipper  wherever  situate.  The 
enormous  tonnage,  travel  and  earnings  of  railways  show  how  extensive 
this  growth  has  been.  Commercial  conditions  today  are  such  that  a 
difference  in  transportation  charges  often  no  greater  and  sometimes  less 
than  one  cent  per  hundred  pounds,  or  a  corresponding  difference  in 
service  rendered,  may  seriously  affect  the  business  not  only  of  persons 
but  of  entire  communities.  This  indicates  how  intense  the  public 
interests  in  railway  service  and  railway  rates  has  become.  With  this 
growth  of  railway  power  and,  to  a  large  extent,  absolute  commercial 
dependence  upon  the  efficiency  and  integrity  of  railway  management, 
the  time  has  surely  come  when  proper  protection  of  the  whole  public 
calls  for  renewed  efforts  on  the  part  of  law-makers  and  railway 
operators  10  advance  the  work  of  transportation  reform  on  the  lines  of 
railway  progress  and  in  the  light  of  experience  gained  in  regulation 
under  the  Railway  act  of  1887. 

We  should  not,  however,  expect  to  arrive  at  purely  ideal  results.  It 
is  idle  to  look  forward  to  an  adjustment  of  rates  which  as  applied  to 
localities  and  differently  circumstanced  persons  will  bear  no  heavier 
upon  one  than  upon  another.  Such  mathematical  equality  is  manifestly 
unattainable  through  human  endeavor.  Not  even  common  control  of 
all  railways  through  consolidated  ownership  or  government  purchase 
could  accomplish  such  a  task  of  equalization  for  thousands  of  places 
and  millions  of  persons.  Certainly  the  much  vaunted  theory  of 
uniform  charges  for  all  traffic  would,  under  the  greatly  diversified  con- 
ditions which  now  prevail  throughout  the  country,  have  the  opposite 
effect,  and  inflict  greater  discriminations  than  arise  under  the  existing 
general  practice  of  fixing  charges  which  attract  traffic  to  the  various 
lines.  A  uniform  rate  per  mile  on  all  traffic  for  any  distance  would 
arbitrarily  limit  commerce  to  sections  and  greatly  restrict  production. 
A  scale  of  mileage  charges  increasing  with  multiples  of  distance,  as 
one  rate  for  20  miles  and  another  for  40  miles,  and  so  on,  and  applied 
to  all  traffic  alike,  which  might  be  just  and  fair  to  one  portion  of  the 
country  would  be  cruel  and  oppressive  to  others.  And  different  scales 
of  distance  rates  for  different  sections,  which  might  prescribe  relatively 
just  charges  for  the  movement  of  some  commodities,  would  present 
ridiculous  and  unbearable  inequalities  in  their  application  to  traffic  in 
general.  The  future  may  bring  about  such  changes  in  commercial 
conditions  as  will  render  it  practicable  to  fix  transportation  charges 
according  to  a  plan  even  more  simple  than  those  just  mentioned,  but  it 
is  quite  apparent  that  neither  could  be  adopted  with  safety  or  advan- 
tage now.  Our  present  duty  is  to  evolve  from  the  existing  situation 
such  transportation   methods  and  rules  as    will   make    approximately 


32  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

reasonable  and  substantially  equal  treatment  of  the  public  the  ordinary- 
result  of  railway  operation. 

It  is  significant  that  during  the  period  of  commerical  development 
and  railroad  extension,  which  have  brought  communities  into  such  close 
business  relations  and  made  slight  differences  in  transportation  rates  on 
competitive  commodities  a  matter  of  serious  import,  there  has  been, 
under  the  operation  of  the  interstate  commerce  law,  a  steady  decrease 
of  complaints  based  on  charges  unreasonable  in  themselves.  The  con- 
cession is  quite  general  among  shippers  that,  with  some  exceptions, 
rates  as  a  whole  are  low  enough,  and  they  often  express  surprise  that 
the  service  can  be  rendered  at  prices  charged. 

The  proper  relation  of  rates  is  now  the  vital  question,  and  one 
important  phase  of  the  problem  of  today  is  how,  in  the  interest  both  of 
carriers  and  shippers,  to  so  adjust  rates  that  neither  communities  nor 
certain  kinds  of  traffic  will  be  unduly  burdened  or  unduly  favored. 
The  private  corporations  which  operate  our  railroads  do  so  with  a  view 
to  resulting  net  revenue,  and  they  are  entitled,  as  a  matter  of  private 
right,  to  fair  remuneration  ;  but  in  apportioning  charges  intended  to 
produce  such  revenue  among  the  communities  they  serve  and  the  kinds 
of  traffic  they  carry,  they  touch  the  public  interest  with  vital  effect  at 
every  point,  and,  while  keeping  within  the  rule  of  just  and  equal  rates 
to  individuals,  their  prime  duty  as  public  carriers  is  to  apply  such 
rates  to  localities,  and  to  the  diversified  traffic  they  carry,  in  relatively 
just  proportions.  While  they  must  take  cognizance  of  the  needs  of 
commerce,  and  regulate  their  charges  accordingly,  it  is  frequently 
difficult,  on  account  of  the  force  of  trade  competition  and  competitive 
relations  between  themselves,  to  maintain  rates  in  proper  relation  and, 
at  the  same  time,  secure  necessary  revenue  ;  for  rates  to  market  centers 
must  generally  be  low  enough  to  induce  the  continued  shipment  of 
commodities  seeking  sale  in  such  markets  in  competition  with  goods 
produced  in  other  sections  and  carried  by  other  lines. 

Railroads  are  public  agencies  operated  with  private  capital  and 
employed  by  the  people  in  the  carrying  on  and  devolpment  of  the 
country's  commerce ;  but  their  steady  employment  depends  upon  the 
resulting  advantage  to  those  who  use  them.  The  farmer  will  not  con- 
tinue hauling  wagon  loads  of  grain  to  the  market  town  if  taking  it  there 
and  selling  it  does  not  benefit  him.  The  railroad  car  which  the  farmer 
loads  with  grain  is  only  another  kind  of  wagon,  and  the  distant  railroad 
center  to  which  the  car  may  be  destined  is  only  another  market  town  on 
a  larger  scale  where  the  farmer's  grain  must  compete  for  sale  with  grain 
from  many  sections  of  the  country,  and  at  prices  fixed  according  to  the 
world's  supply  and  the  world's  demand.  Trade  is  no  longer  limited  to 
circumscribed  areas ;  distance  hardly  ever  bars  the  making  of  com- 
mercial bargains  between  widely  separated  parties,  and  almost  every 
article  of  commerce  finds  the  competing  product  of  another  region  in 
any  place  of  sale.  The  consequence  is  that  products  of  the  farm,  the 
forest,  the  mill  and  the  mine  are  continually  demanding  from  carriers 
rates  adjusted  to  values  in  particular  markets.  It  is  this  competition 
of  product  with  like  product,  of  market  with  market,  that  has  induced 
carriers,  in  their  eagerness  to  increase  the  volume  of  their  traffic,  to 
continually  reduce  their  rates  to  market  points. 

Such  competition  is  the  competition  of  commerce  itself.     The  strife 


PROTECTION  OF  PUBLIC  RIGHTS.  33 

between  competing  industries,  which  the  public  interest  demands, 
should  be  left  free  from  fettering  laws  and  uncontrolled  by  restraining 
combinations.  But  unrestricted  competition  between  the  instrumentali- 
ties which  commerce  must  employ  has  long  been  regarded  as  injurious 
to  the  public  welfare.  This  is  especially  true  of  transportation,  and  to 
the  extent  of  protecting  the  public  interest,  legislatures  and  courts  have 
not  hesitated  to  restrain  the  freedom  of  carriers  in  the  conduct  of  their 
business. 

Another  phase  of  railroad  development,  which  in  some  quarters  has 
created  alarm,  is  consolidation.  Many  claim  that  the  interests  of  com- 
merce are  opposed  to  general  railway  consolidation.  Statistics  show 
that  while  the  gross  earnings  of  railways  are  increased  by  large  amounts 
each  year,  on  many  roads  the  tendency  of  net  revenue  is  to  decrease  ; 
and  many  consolidations  of  lines  have  been  forced  by  the  inability  of 
roads  to  operate  at  all  without  positive  and  irretrievable  loss.  The  fol- 
lowmg  extract  from  the  article  on  railway  statistics  in  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission's  sixth  annual  report  demonstrates  the  extent 
of  consolidation  up  to  June  30,  i8qi  : 

"  There  were,  on  June  30,  1891,  1,785  railway  corporations,  of  which  889  were  independent 
companies,  and  747  were  subsidiary  companies,  the  remainder  being  private   lines.     The  report 


shows  that  16  rqads  have  been  abandoned  during  the  year,  and  that  92  companies,  representing  a 
total  mileage  of  10,116.25  miles,  have  disappeared  by  purchase,  merger,  or  consolidation.  On 
June  30,  1891,  there  were  42  companies,  each  of  which  controlled  mileage  in  excess  of   1,000 


iles,  and  80  companies,  each  of  whose  gross  income  exceeded  $3,000,000.  These  80  com- 
panies control  69.48  per  cent,  of  the  amount  paid  by  the  public  for  railway  service,  and  perform 
83.76  per  cent,  of  the  total  passenger  service,  and  82.66  per  cent,  of  the  total  freight  service  of  the 
country." 

To  my  mind  railway  transportation  is  being  conducted  under  con- 
ditions and  methods  which  warrant  the  following  general  propositions  : 

1.  That  through  inability  or  eagerness  for  immediate  traffic,  carriers 
do  not  resist  the  depressing  effect  upon  rates  which  results  from  the 
competition  of  product  with  product,  and  market  with  market. 

2.  That  changes  of  rates  on  individual  lines,  in  obedience  to  the 
represented  requirements  of  particular  industries,  causes  continual 
interference  with  the  relation  of  rates,  and  result  in  manifold  undue 
preferences  and  prejudices. 

3.  That  unreasonably  low  rates  to  competing  points,  where  the 
larger  portion  of  traffic  is  handled,  impels  railway  officials  to  give 
secret  rebates  in  order  to  divert  business  to  their  lines,  and  thereby 
increase  total  revenue,  though  they  incur  risk  of  fine  and  imprison- 
ment by  so  doing. 

4.  That  the  natural  tendency  towards  railway  consolidation  is 
greatly  stimulated  by  a  rate  situation  which  deprives  many  railways  of 
suffcient  net  revenue. 

5.  That  when  large  proportions  of  railway  tonnage  are  carried  at 
rates  unreasonably  low,  the  regulation,  provided  by  existing  law, 
becomes  difficult  of  enforcement  ;  carriers  seek  to  justify  their  action 
by  technical  and  specious  defenses,  and  indulge  in  dilatory  tactics  in 
litigation,  and  ingenious  devices  to  evade  the  orders  of  the  regulating 
authority. 

If  these  propositions  are  sound,  it  is  obvious  that  shippers  and  car- 
riers have  common  interest  in  devising  a  remedy  which  will  result  in 
greater  revenue  from  the  traffic  of  competing  points.  The  corrective 
measure  most  advocated  is  the  repeal  or  modification  of  that  section  of 


34  WORLUS  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

the  act  to  regulate  commerce,  which  forbids  carriers  to  pool  their 
freights  or  divide  their  earnings  ;  the  object  being  to  permit  the  roads, 
which  carry  between  competitive  points,  to  jointly  establish  rates 
between  such  points,  from  which  neither  of  the  roads  acting  individu- 
ally may  vary,  and  to  agree  among  themselves  how  much  of  the  gross 
tonnage  each  is  entitled  to  carry,  adjusting  the  balances  due  from  and 
to  the  respective  roads,  through  one  or  more  managers  in  charge  of  the 
pool. 

There  is,  apparently,  some  justice  in  the  claim  of  railway  managers, 
"  that  so  long  as  our  rates  and  facilities  are  fair  and  reasonable,  the  gen- 
eral public,  outside  of  our  shareholders,  have  no  interest  in  arrangements 
we  may  find  it  expedient  to  make  among  ourselves."  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  opponents  of  the  scheme  say  that  the  public  has  just  as  much  interest 
in  preventing  the  railroads  from  forming  powerful  and  overshadowing 
combinations  as  it  has  in  restraining  persons  engaged  in  industrial  pur- 
suits from  banding  together  for  the  purpose  of  gain.  They  say,  with 
reference  to  the  carriers,  you  transport  our  commodities,  and  we  are 
willing  that  you  should,  individually,  fix  and  charge  a  fair  price  for  the 
service,  but  we  are  not  willing  to  permit  you  to  combine,  and  by  united 
action,  so  adjust  rates,  facilities  and  methods  of  service  over  naturally 
competing  lines,  so,  in  fact,  conduct  the  transportation  business  of  the 
country,  as  to  force  us,  your  employers,  into  positions  of  subserviency 
which  railway  commissions  and  courts  may  find  it  difficult  to  relieve. 
Specious  pretexts  will  not  induce  us  to  return  to  methods  which  have 
been  fairly  tried  and  thoroughly  condemned.  But  the  advocates  of 
pooling  reply  that  they  would  consent  to  have  the  privilege  hedged 
round  with  all  the  safeguards  which  legislators  can  devise,  even  to  the 
extent  of  requiring  the  pooling  contracts  to  be  submitted  to  the  national 
commission  for  approval,  and  be  at  any  time  subject  to  cancellation  by 
them,  upon  their  finding  any  party  to  the  contract  guilty  of  unjust  dis- 
crimination or  of  disobedience  to  their  orders.  They  say  the  inter- 
state commerce  law  is  a  good  and  just  law,  and  that  they  want  to 
strengthen  it,  and  the  commission  created  to  administer  its  provisions. 

It  is  claimed  that  there  is  no  reason  why  such  conditional  pooling 
could  not,  with  safety  to  the  public  interests,  be  given  the  sanction  of 
law  ;  but  the  people  and  legislators  seem  to  distrust  any  proposition 
which  has  combination  for  its  object,  and  the  result  of  past  efforts  of 
railway  officers  and  others  indicate  that  it  will  be  hard  to  convince  the 
majority,  at  present,  if  ever,  that  what  they  consider  the  abhorrent 
features  of  industrial  trusts  will  not  be  essentially  prominent  in  com- 
binations of  the  transportation  agencies,  which  all  commercial  industries 
must  employ. 

This  being  the  case,  the  question  arises,  whether  an  unobjectionable 
plan  cannot  be  devised  which  will  efficiently  aid  in  securing  stable  and 
just  rates,  and  the  advantages  which  will  flow  therefrom. 

It  would  seem  that  the  maintenance  of  justly  remunerative  rates 
might  be  substantially  aided  by  making  it  the  duty  of  the  commission 
to  regulate  rates  when  they  are  unreasonably  low,  as  well  as  when  they 
are  excessive,  relatively,  or  in  themselves.  As  the  statute  now  stands, 
it  is  not  made  the  duty  of  the  commission,  nor  has  it  the  power  to  pre- 
scribe a  minimum  rate,  however  plainly  it  may  appear  that  such  an 
order  would  be  for  the  interests  of  all  parties  concerned  and  those  of 


PROTECTION  OF  PUBLIC  RIGHTS.  35 

the  general  public.  My  attention  has  been  called  to  this  by  cases  that 
have  come  before  the  interstate  commerce  commission.  It  has  hereto- 
fore been  assumed  that  there  would  be  no  necessity  for  the  public 
authority  to  have  this  power  or  duty  cast  upon  it,  as  the  interests  of  the 
railways  would  be  a  sufficient  guarantee  against  unreasonably  low 
charges,  but  such  an  assumption  has  been  found  erroneous  as  to  com- 
petitive point  rates.  Upon  this  point  there  is  no  longer  room  for 
doubt.  The  utmost  that  can  be  done,  as  the  statute  now  stands,  is  to 
give  the  carrier,  in  a  case  of  relative  rates  to  different  localities,  the 
alternative  of  lowering  one  rate  or  increasing  the  other.  But  this  does 
not  meet  the  difficulty.  One  rate  may  be  to  a  local  station,  the  other 
to  a  so-called  competitive  point,  which  another  carrier  also  serves,  and 
in  such  a  case  the  order  might  as  well  simply  require  a  reduction  of 
the  rate  to  the  local  station,  for  without  the  concurrence  of  the  com- 
peting carrier,  a  change  of  the  competitive  point  rate  would  often  be  a 
vain  and  unprofitable  proceeding.  In  such  a  case  the  true  remedy 
would  often  be,  both  for  the  interest  of  the  parties  and  the  public  at 
large,  to  limit  the  competitive  point  rate. 

In  its  second  annual  report  to  Congress,  the  interstate  commerce 
commission  said  : 

"  If  it  is  important  to  the  public  that  a  railroad  once  constructed  should  be  maintained,  the 
ability  to  make  charges  that  will  render  its  maintenance  possible  is  also  of  public  importance. 
When,  therefore,  the  rate  sheets  are  such  that  reasonable  returns  are  not  probable,  a  public  injury 
IS  threatened,  and  the  injury  is  accomplished  when  the  natural  result  of  bankruptcy  is  realized. 
It  is  of  little  moment  that  in  the  meantime  the  public  reap  an  apparent  benefit  from  the  very  low 
rates;  the  apparent  benefit  is  almost  always  illusory,  for  the  unremunerative  rate  sheets  are  sel- 
dom evenly  balanced;  they  favor  particular  towns  or  particular  interests,  or  they  go  spasmodi- 
cally up  and  down,  and  thus  unsettle  prices ;  they  are  commonly  made  quite  as  much  to  injure 
competitors  as  to  benefit  the  party  making  them,  and  it  will  generally  be  found  that  reasonable 
rates,  adjusted  equitably  over  the  whole  field  of  service,  would  have  been  as  much  better  to  the 
community  as  to  the  carrier  itself.  This,  however,  may  not  at  the  time  be  apparent ;  the  public 
perceives  what  seems  to  be  a  benefit  from  low  rates,  and  the  attendant  evils,  which  are  not  so 
obvious,  may  possibly  not  be  perceived  at  all." 

The  truth  of  this  statement  has  been  more  generally  recognized  and 
better  understood,  from  year  to  year,  since  it  was  first  given  to  Con- 
gress. 

Traffic  for  very  many  competing  localities  is  being  carried  at  rates 
which  do  not  yield  a  due  proportion  of  the  necessary  net  revenue  which 
carriers  must  have.  The  transportation  rule  that  any  traffic  which  will 
pay  something  over  the  cost  of  movement  is  desirable  because  it  adds 
something  to  net  revenue  has  been  too  often  applied  by  managers  with- 
out regard  to  results  ;  so  that  on  many  roads  a  great  portion  of  their 
tonnage  is  being  carried  at  rates  which,  compared  with  the  charges 
levied  for  service  rendered  in  carrying  the  other  portion,  are  extremely 
low.  It  sometimes  occurs  that  the  disparity  between  charges  which  are 
lower  to  competitive  than  to  intermediate  points  is  so  great  that  the 
inference  is  irresistible  that  the  lower  rate  must  be  unremunerative,  or 
else  the  larger  rate  to  the  intermediate  point  gives  an  unwarranted 
return  for  the  service  rendered.  I  call  to  mind  an  instance  of  railroad 
competition  where  the  competitive  rate  of  23  cents  for  567  miles  yielded 
a  rate  per  ton  per  mile  of  only  a  little  over  eight  mills,  and  the  inter- 
mediate rate  of  39  cents  for  230  miles  produced  a  rate  per  ton  per  mile 
of  over  3  ]A,  cents.  Such  gross  disproportion  cannot  be  justified  on  any 
ground  of  cost  or  necessity.  Neither  is  it  extraordinary  to  find  an  arti- 
cle, like  dressed  beef,  for  instance,  being  carried  at  rates  which  are 


36  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

nominal  when  considered  in  connection  with  the  charges  imposed  on 
other  traffic  of  similar  bulk,  value  and  ease  of  carriage  to  the  same 
points.  There  are  other  ways  of  making  up  for  lack  of  sufficient  revenue 
from  competitive  business,  such,  for  example,  as  raising  tariffs  apply- 
ing between  local  stations,  or  insisting  upon  the  right  to  charge  more 
between  points  on  one  road  than  for  longer  distance  over  joint  lines 
of  which  the  road  is  part.  Necessity,  assumed  or  real,  has  been  a  pro- 
lific mother  of  ingenious  invention,  both  in  making  tariff  rates  and 
evading  tariff  rates  when  made.  There  are  even  instances  where  car- 
riers with  a  tnonopoly  of  the  traffic  from  producing  localities  on  their 
lines  have  made  rates  to  market  towns  unnecessarily  low  on  some  of  the 
commodities  carried.  The  competition  of  like  products  from  producing 
localities  on  other  lines  has  not  made  such  low  charges  necessary,  and 
they  exist  through  inadvertence,  mismanagement,  or  through  favor  or 
the  force  of  custom. 

A  Union  Pacific  director  not  long  ago  said :  "  The  Union  Pacific 
road  is  doing  a  large  amount  of  its  business  now  as.  competitive  busi- 
ness at  a  loss,  and  they  have  not  the  nerve  to  stand  up  and  refuse  it, 
because  they  are  fearful  that  some  other  road  will  get  it."  He  also  said 
there  was  a  large  demand  upon  their  road  for  all  their  cars  to  do  a  pay- 
ing business.  To  assume  that  this  practice  was  limited  to  that  road 
would  be  absurd.  It  is  rare  that  a  rate  war  does  not  result  in  rates 
below  a  paying  point.  "  In  general  it  may  be  said  that  railroad  man- 
agers possess  the  power  to  destroy  the  interest  not  only  of  their  rivals, 
but  of  their  own  stockholders,  if  they  can  recklessly  make  rates  that 
lead  to  bankruptcy." 

The  tendency  of  unjustly  low  rates  to  one  point  is  in  the  direction  of 
unreasonably  high  rates  to  others,  and  the  same  is  true  when  one  species 
of  traffic  is  favored  as  against  others,  and  those  who  are  charged  the  high 
rates  have  a  right  to  demand  that  the  burdens  of  transportation  be  more 
equally  distributed.  While  carriers  could,  if  they  would,  materially 
increase  competitive  charges,  and  in  like  degree  scale  down  rates  to  local 
centers  of  trade,  by  acting  harmoniously  to  that  end,  and  by  adhering  to 
such  new  rate  adjustments,  yet  experience  has  shown  that  to  expect  this 
is  to  expect  the  improbable.  A  traffic  manager  attending  railway  meet- 
ings naturally  contends  for  an  adjustment  favoring  the  shipment  of 
products  over  his  line,  and  railway  compacts  entered  into  for  the  pur- 
pose of  maintaining  rates  have  seldom  been  upheld  by  the  members 
when  even  temporary  advantage  could  be  grained  by  breaking  them. 

The  stability  of  just  rates  can  never  be  assured  without  the  sustain- 
ing aid  of  the  law.  While  such  legislation  would  be  in  the  interest  of 
carriers,  its  broader  purpose  and  effect  would  be  the  protection  of  the 
interests  and  rights  of  the  general  public,  and  it  would,  for  that  reason, 
render  the  administration  of  the  law  easier  and  more  successful.  It 
would  answer  the  charge,  now  often  made,  and  not  without  effect  upon 
willing  minds,  that  the  law,  as  it  stands,  naturally  and  unavoidably  oper- 
ates to  depress  rates  unduly. 

When  a  substantial  part  of  the  traffic  is  carried  at  rates  which  do  not 
yield  a  fair  proportion  of  necessary  net  revenue,  the  consequence  is,  first, 
that  other  traffic  must  be  charged  higher  rates  on  that  account ;  or,  sec- 
ond, interest  and  payment  on  floating  indebtedness  and  fixed  charges  must 
be  partially  and  oftentimes  wholly  withheld.     In  the  latter  event,  large 


PROTECTION  OF  PUBLIC  RIGHTS.  37 

loss  to  railway  investors,  an  expensive  receivership,  a  possible  subse- 
quent reorganization,  or  a  consolidation  with  other  lines,  is  only  a  ques- 
tion of  time,  and  during  the  insolvent  period  the  ability  of  the  road  to 
properly  serve  the  public  is  seriously  impaired.  In  the  former  case, 
persons  and  committees  entitled  to  fair  and  impartial  treatment  as  pat- 
rons of  the  road  are  materially  prejudiced,  their  natural  advantage  of 
location  is  destroyed,  and  the  rights  of  the  public  are  invaded.  If  car- 
riers themselves  are  practically  unable  to  agree  upon  and  maintain 
properly  related  rates,  or  if  they  are  able  to  accomplish  and  adhere 
to  such  rate  adjustments,  and  fail  to  do  so,  and  one  of  these  proposi- 
tions is  unmistakably  true,  then,  in  the  interests  both  of  railway  patrons 
and  railway  properties,  the  tribunal  charged  with  the  duty  of  railway 
regulation  should  have  statutory  authority  to  prescribe  minimum  as  well 
as  maximum  charges.  To  regulate  is  to  adjust,  to  prescribe  a  rule.  But 
regulation  which,  with  the  single  exception  above  alluded  to,  whatever 
justice  or  the  public  interest  may  recjuire,  can  work  but  one  way — 
downward — is  only  half  regulation. 

Of  course  I  do  not  assert  that  to  lay  upon  the  commission  the  duty 
of  prescribing  minimum  rates  under  proper  limitations  will  in  itself 
work  out  the  complete  reform  which  is  now  so  imperative,  but  I  do 
claim  that  it  would  promote  the  rate  equalization  and  stability  which  are 
essential  to  accomplish  the  reform. 

Whether  or  not  Congress  can  constitutionally  give  a  commission 
power  to  prescribe  what  rates  a  carrier  shall  charge  is  not,  I  think,  a 
question  involved  in  this  discussion.  An  order  directing  carriers  not  to 
charge  more  than  a  prescribed  maximum  is  not  the  fixing  of  a  rate.  It 
is  confining  the  exercise  of  their  rate-making  privilege  to  a  specified 
and  reasonable  limit ;  and  the  same  is  true  of  an  order  prohibiting  a 
rate  below  a  prescribed  minimum.  The  true  aim  of  regulation  in  a 
country  so  vast  and  with  a  railway  mileage  so  extensive  as  ours  should 
be  not  merely  to  remove,  here  and  there,  such  abuses  as  may  become 
manifest,  but  to  prevent  the  existence  of  those  abuses  as  far  as  possible. 
Now,  if  the  law  does  not  accomplish  this,  its  provisions  should  be  suita- 
bly amended.  I  look  with  favor  upon  the  proposition  that  the  additional 
authority  to  prescribe  a  minimum  rate  after  investigation  is  one  of  the 
essentials  to  the  maintenance  and  stability  of  rates  and  the  prevention 
of  unjust  discriminations  and  preferences.  This  power  should  be  exer- 
cised only  upon  hearing  and  investigation,  and  perhaps  should  be  lim- 
ited to  cases  arising  upon  petition  or  complaint. 

The  design  of  this  paper  is  to  suggest  a  remedy  only  in  general 
terms ;  its  proper  limits  do  not  admit  of  a  presentation  of  the  statutory 
details  of  the  application  of  that  remedy.  If  the  suggestion  here  pre- 
sented is  practical  and  sound,  it  will  be  an  easy  matter  to  formulate 
statutory  provisions  to  carry  it  out,  and  in  a  way  to  make  it  apply  not  only 
to  complaints  of  shippers  based  on  unjust  discriminations  between  local- 
ities, but  also  to  the  petitions  of  carriers  for  relief  against  insufficient 
rates  to  specified  competitive  points,  or  those  which  apply  throughout 
wide  sections  of  the  country  covered  by  traffic  associations,  such,  for 
instance,  as  the  territory  covered  by  the  trunk  lines. 

Perhaps  the  exercise  of  this  power  over  rates  covering  wide  extent 
of  territory  should  only  be  allowed  upon  application  of  carriers.  In 
prescribing  a  minimum  rate  the  right  of  longer  and  otherwise  less  favor- 


38  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

ably  located  lines  to  proper  differentials  should  also  be  preserved.  The 
effect  of  such  action  would  be  to  give  rates,  which  carriers  can  properly 
afford  to  make,  such  qualified  legal  sanction  as  would  render  them  per- 
manent until,  upon  sufficient  showing  to  the  commission,  it  is  demon- 
strated that  they  should  be  altered.  Such  rates  could  not  be  thrown 
out  of  adjustment  by  the  independent  action  of  a  single  road.  Nor 
would  this  course  involve  any  appreciable  disturbance  of  business,  for 
conservative  action  would  be  imperative  with  so  many  conflicting  inter- 
ests involved.  While  the  work  of  the  commission  might  be  somewhat 
increased  at  first,  such  additional  labor  would,  I  believe,  be  of  short 
duration,  and  the  results  would  promote  a  sound  basis  of  rate  making, 
stable  rates,  to  which  commercial  interests  would  grow,  and  upon  which 
they  could  safely  rely,  and  fair  revenue  to  carriers  derived  from  traffic 
in  just  proportions.  Another  ensuing  benefit  would  be,  that  complaints 
to  the  commission  by  shippers  of  violations  of  the  law  would  be  reduced 
to  a  minimum.  Complaints  would  largely  be  made  by  carriers  against 
carriers,  and  such  a  result  is  greatly  to  be  desired.  Those  railway  man- 
agers who  regard  the  fourth  section  as  obstructive  to  the  necessities  of 
traffic  would  cease  to  view  that  provision  with  such  disfavor,  because 
under  the  operation  of  the  regulation  here  proposed,  the  reasons  alleged 
for  high  intermediate  rates  would  be,  to  a  large  extent,  removed.  Will- 
ful and  secret  unjust  discriminations  would  be  comparatively  rare,  for 
carriers  being  cut  off  from  meeting  a  secretly  cut  rate  lawfully,  that  is,  by 
open  reduction  of  published  rates,  would  have  much  greater  reason 
than  now  to  see  that  evidence  of  its  competitor's  violations  of  tariff  rates 
is  produced.  The  knowledge  of  certain  detection  is  the  most  efficient 
preventive  of  crime. 

The  limitation  of  competition  in  rates  leaves  a  wide  field  for  another 
most  useful  kind  of  competition,  viz.,  competition  in  facilities.  This 
includes  the  quality  of  the  physical  structure  and  equipment,  efficiency 
and  promptness  of  service,  terminal  conveniences,  etc.  Indeed,  to 
restrict  competition  in  rates  would  necessarily  stimulate  competition  in 
service,  and  any  careful  reader  of  the  present  law  must  observe  the 
intention  of  its  framers  to  leave  carriers  free  to  provide  the  best  facili- 
ties and  render  the  highest  quality  of  service  at  the  published  tariff 
rate.  While  the  law  prohibits  carriers  from  making  excessive  or  unjust 
charges,  and  provides  for  conviction  of  violators  of  its  provisions,  the 
giving  of  greater  facilities  to  one  place  than  to  another  is  not  made 
obnoxious  except  it  be  shown  to  constitute  undue  preference.  For 
example,  nobody  will  claim  that  the  magnificent  depots  and  the 
immense  warehouses,  and  the  through,  speedy,  and  special  train  service 
enjoyed  by  many  large  competing  localities  occasion  any  injustice  to 
intermediate  places  on  the  same  line.  As  regards  freight,  this  compe- 
tition is  pointedly  exemplified  in  the  transportation  of  fruit,  dairy  pro- 
ducts, live  stock  ^d  dressed  meats,  but  it  would  clearly  be  for  the 
public  interest  to  have  such  competition  promoted  and  extended  in  the 
widest  sense  to  all  railway  freights.  It  is,  with  railroads  as  with 
merchants,  a  sound  and  profitable  business  principle  to  give  the  most 
they  can  for  a  standard  price.  In  fact  such  a  principle  has  especial 
application  to  railway  management,  for,  as  a  rule,  shippers  and 
passengers  look  quite  as  much  to  the  speedy,  safe  and  advantageous 


PROTECTION  OF  PUBLIC  RIGHTS.  39 

way  the  carriage  is  performed  as  they  do  to  the  price  which  the 
carriers  charge. 

The  necessity  of  making  the  provisions  of  the  statute  plain  and 
precise,  so  as  to  accomplish  as  far  as  practicable  what  is  commonly 
termed  the  solution  of  the  railroad  problem,  is  largely  increased  by  the 
fact  that  the  interstate  commerce  commission  is  not  a  tribunal  exercis- 
ing judicial  functions  or  having  judicial  powers  in  the  sense  of  a  court. 
Its  duties  are  administrative.  That  is,  the  commission  applies  the 
principles  or  regulations  provided  by  the  legislative  body  to  the 
practical  work  of  transportation.  In  doing  this,  it  is  obliged  to  give 
construction  to  the  statute,  but  such  construction,  though  judicial  in  its 
nature,  is  not  final. 

Singular  as  it  may  seem,  this  fact  has  been  seized  upon  by 
opponents  of  legislative  regulation,  and  been  used  with  vigor  to  dis- 
credit the  law  and  its  operation.  This  was  to  be  expected.  It  should 
not  be  overlooked  that  operators  and  managers  of  railroads  would 
naturally  be  restive  under  interference  or  restriction  upon  their 
methods ;  nor  should  it  be  a  surprise  that  the  thousands  who  have  been 
the  recipients  of  special  favor,  many  of  whom  have  reaped  fortunes, 
others  a  less  amount  all  th^fe  way  down  to  a  free  ride,  should  berate  a  law 
that  made  wilfull  favoritism  criminal  and  dishonorable  to  the  receiver 
as  well  as  to  the  giver.  Opinion  from  such  sources  as  to  the  value  or 
operation  of  the  regulating  enactment  should  be  taken  at  least  with 
grains  of  allowance,  especially  when  against  it  is  the  counter  opinion  of 
the  great  bulk  of  average  shippers,  in  point  of  individual  tonnage,  who 
have  been  the  victims  and  not  the  heroes  of  the  secret  rebate  system, 
and  also  the  opinion  of  a  very  large  number  of  railway  officials  of  all 
grades. 

It  has  always  been  conceded  by  the  friends  as  well  as  the  enemies 
of  the  law  that  it  was  and  still  is  defective  and  deficient  in  many 
respects,  and  that  without  amendment  it  is  beyond  the  power  of 
adequate  enforcement  to  the  extent  of  a  complete  cure  of  the  evils 
which  it  was  intended  to  remedy.  Some  say  that  nothing  short  of  the 
adoption  of  the  pooling  system  will  make  the  law  of  any  value,  others 
that  a  court  must  be  substituted  for  the  commission.  1  am  not  antago- 
nizing either  suggestion  in  this  paper ;  but  I  am  thoroughly  satisfied 
that  immense  advantages  and  Vjenefits  have  resulted  to  the  country 
from  the  law,  notwithstanding  its  defects  and  the  obstacles  it  has  had  to 
encounter ;  and  further,  that  without  either  of  the  radical  changes  just 
alluded  to,  still  greater  benefits  will  result  from  further  amendments 
along  the  line  which  the  act  originally  contemplated  and  provided. 
Indeed,  I  believe  that  transportation  by  rail  will  fail  to  be  fairly 
remunerative  and  satisfactory  as  a  whole  in  our  country  until  railroads 
adopt  and  act  upon  the  basic  principles  of  the  act  to  regulate  com- 
merce, which  no  one  has  yet  ventured  to  pronounce  unwise  or  unsound  ; 
but  in  my  opinion  that  will  not  be  done  without  the  aid  and  compulsory 
force  of  law. 

If  the  amendment  suggested  in  this  paper  should  be  adopted,  I 
would  have  no  doubt  of  its  great  value  to  commercial  interests,  and 
also  to  the  railroads,  if  they  should  utilize  it  and  give  it  support.  Even 
without  that,  such  amendment  would  greatly  aid  the  commission,  as 
above  shown,  in  the  decision  of    complaints  on  the  ground  of    unjust 


40  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

discrimination  between  terminal  and  intermediate  points.  That  class 
of  complaints,  which  is  now  so  numerous,  would  afford  opportunity  to 
apply  the  general  relief  herein  discussed.  I  can  see  no  good  reason 
why  railroads  should  not  avail  themselves  of  this  remedy,  and  it  seems 
to  me  they  would  show  bad  faith  if  they  did  not.  The  pooling  bill 
favored  by  railroads  before  Congress  at  the  last  session  would  have 
conferred  much  greater  power  upon  the  commission  than  is  here 
contemplated. 

Any  discussion  of  the  railroad  problem  that  loses  sight  of  the  fact 
that  in  the  end  it  is  the  consumer  who  pays  the  freight  charges  of  what 
he  consumes,  whether  it  is  food  to  eat,  clothes  to  wear,  houses  to  live  in,  or 
material  essential  to  him  for  use  in  his  business,  must  be  faulty  in  the 
highest  degree.  The  same  is  true  of  any  discussion  that  fails  to 
recognize  another  fact,  viz. :  that  the  railroad  is  a  public  agency,  per- 
forming a  duty  which  the  courts  have  defined  to  be  a  function  of 
government  ;  that  it  does  not  stand  as  a  piece  of  property  like  a 
dwelling  house  or  a  building  devoted  solely  to  private  business.  I 
cannot  stop  to  dwell  on  this  idea,  but  allude  to  it  only  to  say  that  not- 
withstanding this  peculiar  feature  of  railroad  property,  yet  the 
American  people  like  fair  play,  and  want,  ^  to  this  kind  of  property, 
only  what  is  right  in  regard  to  it.  They  do  not  want  rates  that  are 
below  what  is  reasonable  and  just. 

The  legislation  that  they  have  sought  of  late  years,  either  state  or 
national,  did  not  arise  out  of  a  socialistic  sentiment  or  an  idea  of 
disregarding  constitutional  provisions  designed  to  protect  property  as 
well  as  the  person.  These  provisions  are  sacred  yet  in  their  minds. 
They  were  only  seeking  for  protection  of  their  own  constitutional  rights 
from  abuses  of  railroad  administration,  abuses  that  tended  to  impair 
railroad  investment  as  well  as  to  destroy  that  equal,  fair  and  just  treat- 
ment by  railroads  which  they  owe  to  the  public.  Therefore,  if  in  this 
new  field  of  wrong  and  effort  for  remedy,  the  people  overreached  a 
little  in  some  instances,  it  hardly  warrants  the  charge  of  attempted 
violation  of  property  rights  under  the  constitution  of  our  country. 
When  that  charge  is  in  substance  made  by  the  power  that  created  the 
abuses  that  fully  called  for  remedy,  it  is  a  little  like  the  pot  calling  the 
kettle  black. 

As  I  believe  the  people  do  not  mean  to  be  unfair  in  their  general 
demands  as  to  railroad  rates,  so  I  believe  they  will  favor  any  regula- 
tion that  would  promote  reasonable  and  not  dangerous  protection  of 
railroads,  as  well  as  secure  justice  and  fair  dealing  to  themselves. 

When  railroads  cease  to  do  wrongs  in  respect  of  rates,  they  will 
have  little  to  fear  from  the  people. 

The  question  heretofore  incidentally  alluded  to  may  arise  :  What 
right  has  Congress  to  authorize  a  limitation  upon  a  railroad  company  in 
its  reduction  of  charges  for  services?  The  proper  limits  of  this  address 
forbid  any  extended  discussion  of  Ihe  question.  I  have  endeavored  to 
show  that  experience  and  observation  has  demonstrated  that  the  inter- 
ests of  commerce  demand  it,  viewed  from  every  standpoint  ;  that  it 
would  promote  stability  of  rates  that  are  simply  reasonable  and  just,  of 
rates  only  fairly  remunerative  ;  that  without  some  legislative  provision 
against  unreasonably  low  rates,  the  railroads  cannot  or  will  not  guard 
against   them  ;  that   such  rates  tend  strongly  to  promote  unjust  discrim- 


PROTECTION  OF  PUBLIC  RIGHTS.  4 1 

illations ;  that  they  imperil  railroad  investments  ;  that  this  vitally 
affects  industries  throughout  the  country  ;  that  as  productive  enter- 
prises and  mercantile  pursuits  must  always  involve  consideration  of  the 
cost  of  transportation ;  the  closer  this  can  be  brought  within  fixed 
limits,  which  do  not  violate  the  rule  of  reasonableness  in  either  direc- 
tion, the  more  certain  and  reliable  may  be  the  calculations  in  such 
enterprises  and  pursuits  ;  that  this  is  of  infinitely  greater  importance 
than  the  opportunity  for  spasmodic  rates  that  are  below  fair  remu- 
neration ;  that  the  imposition  of  this  duty  upon  the  interstate  com- 
merce commission  would  operate  as  a  substantial  aid  in  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  provisions  against  unjust  discrimination  and  unlawful 
preference,  and  would  largely  remove  the  inducement  to  such  practices 
on  the  part  of  carriers ;  that  transportation  - —  the  business  of 
carriers  —  is  so  closely  related,  and  so  essential  to  all  other  industries, 
that  it  is  practically  a  part  of  them,  and  whatever  weakens  or  in  any 
way  injuriously  affects  railroads,  carries  a  depressing  effect  into  other 
industries  and  touches  all  social  prosperity ;  that  while  competition  in 
rates  is  effective  against  extortion,  it  is  not  so  against  discrimination ; 
that  every  public  interest  related  to  commerce  would  be  benefited  by 
the  remedy  suggested  and  no  private  interest  would  wrongfully  suffer. 
To  a  greater  or  less  extent  it  would,  as  before  shown,  destroy  the 
opportunity  of  shippers  to  obtain  undue  advantages  prohibited  by  the 
statute,  and  it  would  interfere  with  the  occasional  carrier  —  so  disposed 
—  from  entering  the  realm  of  ruinous  competition  ;  but  beyond  this,  it 
does  not  occur  to  me  how  any  interest  could  suffer.  Assuming  that 
Congress  has  constitutional  power  to  regulate,  which  is  denied  by  some 
lawyers,  but  by  no  court,  and  that  the  foregoing  summary  is  well  found- 
ed, it  is  difficult  to  see  what  doubt  there  can  be  of  the  right  of  Congress 
to  confer  the  power  or  impose  the  duty  here  suggested.  The  exercise 
of  the  power  of  duty  would  be  open  to  revision  in  the  courts  the  same 
as  now,  when  the  commission  fixes  a  maximum  rate.  It  is  the  general 
doctrine  of  the  cases,  that  whether  the  particular  regulation  is  really 
necessary  or  appropriate  is  a  question  almost  entirely  for  the  exclusive 
judgment  of  Congiess,  under  its  broad  constitutional  power  to  regulate 
commerce  among  the  states.  It  would,  therefore,  seem  that  where  a 
regulation  is  actually  found  to  be  in  the  public  interest,  without  any 
element  of  confiscation  or  destruction  of  private  property  or  rights,  it 
is  far  within  the  power  conferred  upon  Congress. 

In  the  suggestions  herein  made,  I  speak  only  for  myself,  not  offic- 
ially for  the  interstate  commerce  commission.  The  duties  of  the  com- 
mission have  been  so  exacting,  perplexing  and  important,  that  its 
practice  has  been  to  disfavor  any  amendment  of  the  statute  which 
would  increase  its  powers  and  responsibilities,  unless  absolutely  essen- 
tial. It  is  often  said  that  the  habit  of  tribunals  is  to  reach  out  for  addi- 
tional power  and  authority.  The  reverse  is  true  of  this  commission. 
Not  because  its  members  are  different  from  others  in  natural  desire  for 
power  ;  but  because  the  burdens  imposed  upon  them  under  the  law  are 
quite  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  most  grasping  ambition. 

There  are  many  things  either  wholly  omitted  or  incompletely  pro- 
vided for  in  the  act  to  regulate  commerce  in  addition  to  the  defect 
discussed  in  this  paper,  which,  when  perfected  through  statutory  pro- 
vision, will  be  helpful   regulations  in  the   interests  of    commerce  and 


42  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

transportation  ;  such  as  better,  perhaps  uniform,  classification,  improved 
form  of  tarifif  schedules,  more  reliable  and  economical  methods  of 
through  routing,  use  of  shippers'  cars,  regulation  of  transportation 
agencies  not  now  subject  to  the  statute,  power  for  the  enforcement  of 
more  complete  statistics  of  railway  operation,  definite  rules  governing 
railroad  construction  and  railway  capitalization,  and  other  subjects  in 
which  the  public  has  substantial  interest.  These  matters,  however,  will 
naturally  be  questions  for  solution  in  the  light  of  experience  in  regula- 
tion, and  the  progress  in  railway  operation,  which  railway  managers 
will  continue  to  develop. 

To  fully  treat  the  comprehensive  subject  assigned  to  me,  would 
require  discussion  too  extended  for  this  occasion.  It  has  not  been  my 
object  to  solve  the  railway  problem, —  that  will  never  be  wholly  accom- 
plished, because  the  conditions,  the  elements  of  the  problem,  will  be 
constantly  changing, — but  to  make  a  suggestion  that  will  efficiently 
aid  in  the  removal  of  any  obstructions  to  the  application  of  sound  prin- 
ciples to  transportation,  and  thereby  advance  the  best  interests  of 
commerce. 


PROTECTION  OF  PRIVATE  RIGHTS  INVOLVED  IN  RAILWAY 

COMMERCE. 


EDWARD  P.  RIPLEY,  VICE-PRESIDENT  CHICAGO,  MILWAUKEE  &  ST.  PAUL 

RAILWAY    CO. 


When,  with  honeyed  words  of  flattery,  the  secretary  of  the  Railway 
branch  of  the  World's  Columbian  Auxiliary  beguiled  me  into  a  promise 
to  write  something  for  this  occasion,  and  propounded  as  the  alluringly 
alliterative  title,  "The  Proper  Protection  of  Private  Rights  Involved  in 
Railway  Commerce,"  my  first  impulse  was  to  ask  —  "What  Private 
Rights  ?  Am  I  expected  to  discuss  the  private  rights  of  the  individual 
who  deals  with  the  railway,  or  those  of  the  individual  who  owns  the 
railway  ?  "  On  looking  over  the  list  of  topics,  however,  I  perceived  that 
another,  and  far  more  able  gentleman,  had  been  assigned  to  the  task  of 
bringing  forward  the  "public  rights  inv^olved  in  railway  commerce" — 
upon  which  I  concluded  that  my  task  was  to  portray  the  woes  of  the 
stockholder. 

Many  difficulties  surround  this  task,  chief  among  which  is  the  fact 
that  the  subject  has  been  so  thoroughly  discussed  that  I  can  hardly 
contribute  anything  that  has  not  been  better  said  before.  It  is 
related  of  Sydney  Smith  that  he  once  criticised  a  new  book  as  follows  : 
"  There  are  things  in  it  which  are  new,  and  things  which  are  good  — 
but  the  good  things  are  not  new  and  the  new  things  are  not  good."  I 
deeply  feel  that  in  this  paper  there  is  likely  to  be  nothing  new,  and 
that  if  there  are  any  good  things  they  will  be  old. 

I  stand  here  then  for  that  long  suffering,  patient  and  much  abused 
individual,  the  stockholder  —  to  >^z>  grievances,  I  invite  your  attention 
and  for  his  wrongs  I  plead  for  redress.     He  seldom  obtrudes  himself  — 


PROTECTION  OF  PRIVATE  RIGHTS.  43 

he  has  no  voice  in  the  legislation,  which,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent, 
injures  his  property,  and  too  often  does  not  even  have  much  to  say 
about  its  management.  He  accepts  with  meek  gratitude  such  divi- 
dends as  are  meted  out  to  him,  and  hopes  for  better  things  —  he  is  sup- 
ported indeed  mainly  by  hope.  He  is  seldom  heard  —  even  his  own 
employes  and  the  managers  of  his  property  do  not  get  his  woes  before 
the  public,  which  generally  looks  upon  him  as  an  alien  and  as  a  sub- 
ject to  be  plucked. 

None  of  the  ready  sympathy  which  the  public  extends  to  the  indi- 
vidual is  extended  to  the  individuals  of  a  corporation,  however  unfortu- 
nate that  corporation  may  be.  It  is  not  easy  for  me  to  see  how  private 
individuals  lose  their  rights  when  banded  together  as  an  incorporated 
body.  If  an  enterprise  is  conducted  by  an  individual  no  one  questions 
his  right  to  manage  it  at  his  discretion,  but  if  it  requires  larger  capital 
than  a  single  individual  can  command,  and  various  persons  associate 
themselves  together  for  the  same  end,  the  popular  feeling  seems  to  be 
that  in  some  way  they  commit  a  crime  against  the  body  politic  —  at  all 
events  they  are  denied  in  many  cases  the  rights  which  the  individual 
possesses. 

No  one  questions  the  right  of  a  carpenter,  a  bricklayer  or  any  other 
artisan  to  demand  and  obtain  all  that  he  can  for  his  services ;  no  one 
in  these  days  even  questions  the  right  of  any  working  man  to  combine 
with  other  working  men  to  the  end  that  the  community  shall  be  forced 
into  complying  with  his  demands,  providing,  of  course,  no  violence  is 
used.  I  maintain  that  the  railroads  have  as  much  right  to  so  combine 
as  has  any  other  interest  —  even  better  right — because  they  cannot,  like 
the  artisan,  take  their  tools  and  move  to  another  locality.  This  ren- 
ders them  to  a  great  extent  helpless,  and  at  the  mercy  of  the  sur- 
rounding community,  and  on  this  account  entitled  to  greater  consider- 
ation than  any  other  industry;  yet  this  interest  —  the  most  complex 
and  most  essential  of  all  —  is  singled  out  as  the  sole  business  in  which 
the  state  assumes  to  interfere. 

And  so  when  we  say  there  are  175,000  miles  of  railroad  in  the 
United  States,  most  of  which  make  no  returns  on  capital  stock,  and 
many  do  not  pay  interest  on  their  debt,  and  others  fail  even  to  pay 
'expenses,  the  public  which  would  cheerfully  proffer  aid  to  an  individ- 
ual bankrupt,  and  would  scorn  at  least  to  make  him  poorer  by  legisla- 
tive enactment,  shrugs  its  shoulders  at  our  tale  of  woe,  and  talks  of 
"watered  stocks;"  of  the  fortunes  of  Vanderbilt  and  Gould  (as  if 
these  things  had  any  bearing  on  the  case)  and  the  necessity  of  "regu- 
lating" the  railroads, —  which  regulation,  singularly  enough,  always 
takes  the  form  of  a  reduction  of  corporate  revenues. 

It  is  probable  that  much  of  the  restrictive  legislation  enacted  as  to 
railways  comes  from  a  belief  that  railways  have  been  profitable  to 
investors ;  it  is  unquestionably  true  that  such  an  idea  prevails  among 
the  masses  to  a  very  considerable  extent,  and  while  the  figures  show 
conclusively  the  absurdity  of  such  an  idea,  one  can  easily  see  how  it 
obtains  credence  because  some  of  the  largest  private  fortunes  in  the 
country  have  belonged  to  men  more  or  less  identified  with  railroads. 
But  Vanderbilt  laid  the  foundation  of  his  fortune  in  other  pursuits,  and 
Gould  made  his,  not  by  the   operation  of  railroads,  but  by  the  manipu- 


44  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

lation  of  securities  in  Wall  street.  Others  have  made  money  in  the 
construction  and  subsequent  sale  of  railroad  properties. 

The  business  of  transportation  by  rail  employs  more  money  and 
more  men  than  any  other  industry  in  the  country,  and  it  would  be 
exceeding  strange  it  we  could  not  here  and  there  point  to  examples  of 
conspicuous  success ;  but  in  any  impartial  view  of  the  situation,  the  fail- 
ures must  also  be  taken  into  account,  and  if  the  railroads  as  a  whole 
are  not  now  yielding  a  fair  return  upon  their  value,  the  selection  of 
individual  successes  proves  nothing. 

Nothing  is  more  common  in  discussing  the  regulation  of  railroads 
than  to  hear  of  "watered  stock"  and  "dividends  on  fictitious  values," 
and  it  is  surprisingly  difficult  to  convince  the  public  that  this  well-worn 
war  cry  —  this  fetich  of  the  demagogue  —  has  no  place  in  the  discus- 
sion and  is  wholly  foreign  to  the  question  of  relations  between  the  rail- 
road and  that  portion  of  the  public  which  uses  them.  If  we  are  right 
in  the  belief  that  the  railroad  is  entitled  to  earn  a  fair  return  on  its 
value  it  is  of  no  importance  to  the  public  whether  that  railroad  is  cap- 
italized at  a  million  dollars,  with  its  securities  selHng  at  par,  or  at  ten 
millions,  with  securities  selling  at  ten  per  cent,  of  par.  The  specula- 
tive or  investing  portion  of  the  public  gauges  the  value  of  the  property 
upon  its  earning  power  with  tolerable  accuracy.  I  believe  there  are 
very  few  railroads  (I  know  of  none)  in  this  country  which  at  any  time 
during  the  past  ten  years  have  earned  more  than  six  per  cent,  upon 
their  value  —  meaning  by  value  what  it  would  cost  to  reproduce  them. 
In  the  case  of  the  companies  now  paying  dividends  I  believe  it  to  be 
true  that  most  of  them  are  capitalized  for  much  less  than  their  repro- 
ducing value,  and  that  few  or  none  of  them  earn  anything  like  a  fair 
return  on  what  it  would  cost  to  duplicate  them. 

The  public  has  asserted  certain  rights  in  the  private  property  of  indi- 
viduals invested  in  railroads  —  it  has  had  those  rights  confirmed  by  the 
highest  legal  tribunal  of  our  country,  and  it  has  proceeded  to  exercise 
them  :  it  dictates  practically  what  return,  if  any,  the  individual  investor 
shall  receive  on  his  investment, — to  a  considerable  extent  it  deprives 
him  of  the  use  of  his  property  and  limits  his  profits.  This  is  not  a  mat- 
ter of  contract  either,  as  much  the  larger  part  of  our  railroad  mileage 
had  been  constructed  before  it  occurred  to  the  public  that  it  possessed 
these  rights  and  powers,  and  on  the  faith  of  state  charters  which 
reserved  no  such  rights,  and  in  many  cases  distinctly  conferred  the  sole 
rate-making  power  on  the  corporation.  Thus  those,  who  in  the  middle 
of  this  century  put  their  savings  into  railroads  and  thus  rapidly  devel- 
oped the  resources  of  the  nation  at  their  own  risk  and  expense,  now 
find  themselves  in  many  —  perhaps  in  most  cases,  deprived  of  the 
return  which  their  enterprise  warranted. 

For  myself,  I  have  never  been  able  to  see  what  the  public  has  done 
for  the  railways  that  entitles  it  to  so  large  a  voice  in  their  affairs  as  it 
now  claims.  When  I  make  this  statement  I  am  usually  reminded  of 
the  right  of  eminent  domain  possessed  by  railways.  Now  this  phrase 
has  a  pompous  ring  about  it  which  is  calculated  to  deceive,  and  while  I 
have  no  doubt  that  all  my  hearers  know  what  it  means,  I  want  to  give 
you  its  meaning  from  a  railroad  standpoint.  It  means  in  short,  that  you 
can  force  a  man  to  sell  you  his  land  whether  he  wants  to  or  not,  but  it 
also  means  that  he  can  and  will  make  you  pay  from  two  to  four  prices 


PROTECTION  OF  PRIVATE  RIGHTS.  45 

for  it.  This  is  all  there  is  to  that  high  and  mighty  prerogative  of 
eminent  domain — a  prerogative  granted  by  the  public  because  the 
public  need  railroads  and  they  could  not  be  built  without  the  right  to 
condemn  property  ;  beyond  this  necessary  regulation  the  public  does 
nothing  for  the  stockholder,  yet  the  laws  are  framed  upon  the  apparent 
postulate  that  the  state  has  conferred  upon  the  railroad  some  ines- 
timable boon  which  entitles  it  in  return  to  demand  whatever  it  pleases, 
and  to  enforce  its  demands.  But  I  do  not  care  now  to  criticise  the 
position  of  the  courts  on  these  questions ;  it  has  been  decided  that  a 
railroad  is  a  "quasi"  public  corporation,  — which  seems  to  me  a  very 
happy  way  of  intimating  that  the  public  has  the  right  to  interfere  in  all 
the  operations  of  a  railway  except  the  payment  of  its  debts. 

Assuming  then  the  right  of  the  public  to  "  regulate"  railway  affairs, 
the  question  before  us  is  how  that  regulation  shall  be  accomplished  with 
due  regard  to  the  rights  of  security  holders  —  that  is,  if  they  have  any, 
which  is  a  question  upon  which  the  courts  have  been  less  explicit. 

Are  the  owners  of  railway  property  entitled  to  any  return  on  their 
investment,  and  if  so,  what  return  ?  If  they  are  to  be  denied  the 
privilege  accorded  to  all  other  business  enterprises  of  making  all  they 
can,  and  if  the  public  is  to  regulate  their  affairs  and  limit  their  earnings, 
it  is  certainly  of  the  first  importance  that  the  owners  should  know  upon 
what  basis  our  rulers  propose  to  compute  the  returns  which  they  propose 
to  allow  for  the  use  of  the  property. 

It  is  very  customary  to  hear  gentlemen  announce  that  the  basis 
should  be  that  of  "  cost  and  a  fair  profit,"  but,  as  the  cost  is  in  the 
nature  of  things  unascertainable  until  after  the  event,  this  is  manifestly 
impracticable.  Others  again  claim  that  each  road  should  be  allowed  to 
earn  interest  on  its  cost.  But  some  railroads  have  cost  more  than  they 
are  worth  —  that  is,  more  than  they  could  be  duplicated  for,  while  others 
could  not  be  replaced  for  two  or  three  times  what  they  cost.  How 
will  the  public  provide  for  earnings  on  the  former  sufficient  to  pay 
interest  on  the  excess  of  cost  if  the  owners  have  been  unable  to  do  it 
themselves ;  and,  as  to  the  latter,  shall  the  owners  of  railroads  be  alone 
deprived  of  the  advance  in  property  values  which  their  own  enterprise 
has  created?  If  the  railroad  buys  right  of  way  at  five  dollars  per  acre 
and  in  ten  years  makes  it  worth  fifty,  why  is  it  not  entitled  to  the  increase 
in  the  value  of  its  property  as  is  the  farmer  who  bought  at  the  same 
time  and  the  value  of  whose  land  has  been  created  by  the  railroad? 

The  dictum  of  an  eminent  legal  authority  is  that  the  railroad  is 
entitled  to  earn  interest  on  its  bonds  and  some  dividend  on  its  stock — the 
amount  of  dividend  resting  with  the  legislature.  The  source  of  this 
opinion  entitles  it  to  respect,  but  it  suggests  the  idea  that  hereafter  it 
would  be  wise  for  the  projectors  of  railroads  to  capitalize  wholly  in  bonds. 
Another  proposition  is  that  the  railroad  is  entitled  to  earn  interest  on  its 
value  /.  e.,  the  sum  for  which  it  can  be  duplicated, — and  if  the  state 
is  to  take  a  hand  in  railroad  affairs,  it  seems  to  me  that  this  proposition 
is  the  nearest  approach  to  being  just.  Should  the  nation  and  the 
various  states  remove  the  present  jumble  of  absurdities  which  pass  for 
railroad  laws,  and  pass  simple  and  direct  laws  forbidding  abuses 
which  everybody  admits  are  abuses,  such  as  unjust  discrimination 
against  persons  or  localities,  with  swift  and  sure  redress  for  such  griev- 
ances—  leaving  the  question  of  rates  with   the  owners  of  the  roads, 


46  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

providing  only  that   the  net   receipts  shall   not  exceed per  cent. 

upon  the  value  of  the  road,  such  valuation  to  be  made  at  stated  periods 
by  constituted  authority,  it  would  be  a  much  nearer  approach  to  justice, 
although  even  such  a  system  would  be  open  to  grave  objection. 

At  all  events,  if  we  must  have  legislation,  all  must  agree  that  it 
should  be  of  the  simplest  possible  character,  and  uniform  throughout 
the  country. 

Not  the  least  of  our  present  troubles  is  the  conflict  of  the  state  laws 
with  each  other  and  with  those  of  the  nation,  and  jealousies  of  the  states 
as  regards  each  other.  One  western  state  has  done  its  best  to  erect 
a  Chinese  wall  around  itself,  and  to  so  adjust  the  rates  of  its  railroads 
as  to  "protect"  its  merchants  against  those  of  other  states  by  giving 
them  advantages  out  of  the  railroad  treasuries. 

When  a  road  is  located  in  ten  or  twelve  states,  as  some  of  our  roads 
are,  it  is  no  easy  task  to  conform  to  the  rules  and  regulations  of  each, 
or  even  to  keep  track  of  all  the  laws  passed,  apparently  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  hampering  and  restricting  the  roads  in  every  way  possible. 
There  is  no  parallel  in  the  commercial  history  of  the  last  century  for 
the  persecution  undergone  by  the  railroads  of  the  western  states  in  the 
past  ten  years.  I  am  very  far  from  claiming  that  railroad  management 
has  been  always  ideal,  or  that  there  have  not  been  instances  where 
railway  officials  have  abused  the  confidence  reposed  in  them  by  the 
shareholders,  as  well  as  used  their  power  to  impose  upon  the  public  — 
but  I  do  maintain  that  these  cases  have  not  been  numerous,  and  that  m 
view  of  the  rapid  growth  of  our  railway  system  it  has  been  marvelously 
well  handled  and  wonderfully  respectful  of  public  rights. 

Of  course  there  is  an  alleged  reason  for  all  this,  and  the  advocate 
of  state  interference  will  tell  you  that  railroads  are  monopolies,  and 
that  they  are  guilty  of  unjust  discriminations  as  between  individuals 
and  localities,  and  that  some  power  must  protect  the  people  against 
these  corporations.  Broadly  speaking,  these  statements  and  charges 
are  not  true.  No  railroad  monopoly  exists,  and  no  unjust  discrimina- 
tions. True  there  have  been  isolated  cases  where  dishonest  or  weak 
men  have  held  responsible  railroad  positions,  and  have  used  such 
power  as  they  possessed  for  the  private  benefit  of  themselves  or  their 
friends ;  but  these  cases  have  been  rare  and  constitute  no  justification 
for  general  legislation.  As  to  monopoly,  there  are  but  few  localities  in 
the  country  which  have  not  more  or  less  direct  access  to  more  than  one 
means  of  transportation,  and  no  competition  is  stronger  than  that 
between  carriers.  There  are  few  industries  in  the  country  in  which  a 
monopoly  is  so  little  possible  as  in  the  transportation  business. 

Moreover,  I  desire  here  to  assert  my  profound  conviction  that  the 
anti-railroad  sentiment  finds  little  or  no  support  among  the  classes 
who  use  the  railroad  most,  and  who  are  most  conversant  with  its 
methods.  Merchants  and  manufacturers  are  not  of  the  classes  that 
clamor  for  legislation.  The  war  cry  is  always  shouted  by  unscrupulous 
political  demagogues  and  place  hunters  who  endeavor  to  make  the 
farmer  believe  that  he  has  a  real  grievance,  and  who  ride  into  power  by 
the  strength  of  his  votes. 

It  is  obvious  that  justice  to  railroads  is  not  to  be  expected  from  the 
several  states.  In  the  first  place  the  commissioners  are  elected  by  the 
people,  and  are  responsible  only  to  their  constituents ;    not  only  do  the 


PROTECTION  OF  PRIVATE  RIGHTS,  47 

railroads  have  no  voice  in  their  selection,  but  in  many  of  the  states  the 
law  explicitly  provides  that  the  commissioners  shall  own  no  railroad  stock 
or  be  in  any  manner  connected  with  a  railroad  at  the  time  of  their 
election,  and  the  result  of  these  provisions  naturally  is  that  the  persons 
elected  have  absolutely  no  knowledge  of  the  subject  with  which  they 
are  to  deal.  Even  if  they  are  capable  of  absorbing  information  they 
are  seldom  given  an  opportunity,  for  they  have  short  terms,  and  about 
the  time  one  of  them  begins  to  have  a  dim  perception  o  f  his  duties 
another  politician  succeeds  him.  It  is  hard  to  speak  patiently  of  the 
subjection  of  the  vast  railroad  interests  of  the  country  to  the  ignorance 
and  caprice  and  political  ambition  of  these  commissioners.  I  have 
known  one  of  them  to  insist  upon  a  reduction  of  rate,  which  he  admitted 
to  be  unreasonable,  because  the  people  of  his  county  were  specially 
interested  in  the  article  affected  by  the  reduction,  and  I  have  known 
another  to  threaten  vengeance  because  a  railroad  company  refused  to 
issue  passes  to  some  of  his  friends.  Not  all  state  commissioners  are 
of  this  class  ;  there  are  many  and  honorable  exceptions,  but  so  long  as 
the  office  s  made  a  reward  for  political  services,  or  goes  to  those  who 
can  talk  lo'udest  against  corporations  on  the  stump,  the  railroads  have 
little  to  hope  for  from  the  state  commissions. 

The  p  ublic  is  not  honest  with  the  stockholder  ;  it  refuses  to  regard 
his  prop  erty  as  either  purely  public  or  purely  private,  but  takes 
refuge  behind  the  "  quasi-public  "  proclamation.  Now  I  maintain  that 
the  railroad  is  either  a  private  or  a  public  corporation.  If  the  former 
it  should  be  left  free  to  manage  its  own  affairs,  as  do  other  private 
corporations  ;  if  the  latter,  it  should  be  protected  as  are  other  public 
corporations.  The  United  States  permits  no  competition  with  its  post- 
office  department;  it  charges  two  cents  for  carrying  a  letter  from  New 
York  to  Philadelphia,  though  I  have  no  doubt  that  private  or  "quasi- 
public  ''  corporations  could  be  found  that  would  be  glad  to  do  it  for 
less.  /  repeat  that  we  should  either  be  let  alone  or  taken  care  of, 
either  be  turned  out  on  the  world  to  work  out  our  own  salvation  with  no 
restrictions,  except  such  as  surround  other  business  ventures,  or  else 
taken  under  the  protection  of  government.  It  is  not  fair  to  restrict 
while  refusing  to  protect.  No  invested  capital  is  so  powerless  as  that 
invested  in  railroads  —  none  so  exposed  to  attack  —  none  so  immovable. 

T  here  is  a  main  line  of  road  in  this  state  which  has  cost  nearly 
$100  GOO  per  mile,  yet  for  a  few  dollars  an  enterprising  promoter  can 
get  a  charter  for  a  parallel  road  ;  he  can  inform  the  people  along  the 
old  line  that  they  are  being  charged  too  much,  and  that  if  they  will  aid 
him  he  will  make  lower  rates  ;  he  can  get  donations  of  right  of  way  and 
perhaps  cash  ;  he  can  (or  has  been  able  to  do  so  in  the  past)  find  con- 
fiding parties  to  take  his  bonds  for  a  sum  greater  than  the  cost  of  the 
road  ;  he  can  build  a  road  for  $20,000  a  mile,  over  which  he  can  do 
business  after  a  fashion,  and  he  can  annoy  and  harass  the  older  road 
beyond  measure,  though  he  has  not  a  quarter  as  large  an  investment, 
and  although  he  cannot  afford  the  facilities  which  the  public  demands 
and  which  the  older  road  has  furnished  at  great  expense.  The  state 
regulates  but  does  not  protect  —  railroad  building  is  free  —  the  state 
takes  cognizance  of  our  profits  that  they  may  not  be^too  large,  but 
refuses  to  consider  our  losses  because  we,  in  that  case,  are  a  "  private 
corporation  "  ;  it  is  not  fair  and  it  is  not  honest. 


48  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

Misstatements  as  to  railroad  motives  and  methods  are  rife  in  all 
conceivable  forms,  and  little  is  heard  on  the  other  side  except  in 
technical  journals,  which  do  not  reach  the  masses.  It  has  been  so 
popular  to  abuse  the  railroads  that  the  other  side  seldom  gets  a 
hearing. 

There  is  a  parable  which  runs  in  this  wise  : 

"  A  man  walking  with  a  lion  showed  him,  in  the  ostentation  of  human  superiority,  a 
picture  of  a  man  killing  a  lion,  upon  which  the  lion  said  very  justly :  '  We  lions  are  none 
of  us  painters,  else  we  could  show  a  hundred  men  killed  by  lions  for  every  lion  killed  by  a 
man.'" 

So  may  the  stockholder  say  :  "  For  every  man  injured  by  the  mis- 
deeds of  railroads  I  will  show  you  a  hundred  stockholders  injured  by 
the  injustice  of  the  public  toward  them."  But  as  the  lion  was  unable 
to  get  his  case  before  the  public,  so  is  the  stockholder. 

The  managers  of  railroads,  while  men  of  ability,  are  mainly 
specialists,  and  have  not  been  selected  for  their  qualities  as  orators  or 
as  writers ;  they  can  state  a  case  in  plain  business  fashion,  but  theirs 
is  not  the  "gift  of  gab"  and  they  are  busy  men  ;  they  daily  read  in 
the  public  prints  the  most  outrageously  false  and  misleading  statements 
of  their  doings,  their  motives  and  their  aims,  and  they  are  silent  under 
attack.  The  railroad  side  of  the  question  is  heard  only  in  technical 
journals,  which  the  public  does  not  read,  and  thus  the  public's  educa- 
tion is  all  on  one  side.  I  have  faith  to  believe  that,  as  knowledge  and 
education  increase,  and  as  the  American  public  becomes  more  familiar 
with  what  is  known  as  the  "  railroad  problem,"  the  conclusion  will  be 
arrived  at  that  the  roads  should  be  released  of  most  of  the  restrictive 
legislation  under  which  they  now  labor,  or  else  that  the  government 
should  buy  and  operate  them.  The  latter  method  would  be  a  national 
calamity,  but  it  would  be  consistent  with  the  ideas  of  those  who  believe 
in  a  paternal  government.  The  present  middle  course,  which  confis- 
cates in  whole  or  in  part  the  property  of  the  stockholder,  seems  to  me 
as  wholly  unjustifiable  and  impracticable,  as  the  attempt  in  the  middle 
ages  to  fix  the  price  and  size  of  a  loaf  of  bread,  regardless  of  the  cost 
of  rye.  Perhaps  this  juster  sentiment  may  not  come  while  we  live,  but 
it  will  come. 

As  for  us,  who  have  been  crying  in  the  wilderness  these  many  years, 
we  have  had  our  sensibilities  blunted  by  constant  blows,  and  have  from 
much  pounding  become  more  or  less  numb  ;  we  cannot  parry  the  blows, 
but  we  feel  them  less  than  we  used  to.  None  the  less  should  it  be  our 
duty  to  begin  and  continue  a  campaign  of  education,  to  the  end  that 
the  people  may  know  the  truth  and  observe  the  right. 


PRINCIPLES  OF  RAILWAY  LEGISLATION.  49 


PRINCIPLES  OF  RAILWAY  LEGISLATION. 


HON.  MARTIN  A.  KNAPP,  MEMBER  INTERSTATE  COMMERCE  COMMISSION. 


No  topic  of  current  discussion  is  more  important  or  perplexing  than 
the  appropriate  scope  of  legislative  enactments  relating  to  the  business 
of  common  carriers.  It  is  a  subject  which  may  well  command  the  most 
thoughtful  reflection,  for  it  touches  the  welfare  of  every  person  and 
taxes  the  resources  of  public  authority.  Transportation  by  rail  is  of 
such  recent  origin,  and  has  developed  with  such  wonderful  rapidity, 
that  neither  its  rights  nor  its  obligations  are  yet  fully  defined.  The 
railroad  of  today  is  not  only  the  chief  agency  by  which  the  internal 
commerce  of  the  country  is  carried  on,  but  its  influence  is  so  powerful 
and  its  relation  to  every  form  of  industry  so  intimate  and  vital  that  its 
proper  place  within  the  sphere  of  government  control  presents  an 
inquiry  of  the  gravest  import. 

Such  consideration  of  this  question  as  I  may  venture  to  attempt  on 
the  present  occasion  leaves  out  of  view,  for  the  most  part,  the  law- 
making power  of  the  several  states.  That  power  has  been  lavishly 
exercised  hitherto  in  creating  the  multitude  of  corporations  which 
furnish  the  facilities  of  railway  conveyance,  and  which  have  sprung  into 
being  as  if  born  of  enchantment.  Already  their  lines  stretch  out  in 
.every  direction  from  one  end  of  the  land  to  the  other.  They  have 
bridged  the  rivers,  penetrated  the  wilderness,  climbed  over  mountains 
and  traversed  the  deserts  with  their  highways  of  steel.  They  have 
enriched  every  occupation,  given  multiplied  value  to  every  pursuit  and 
made  our  vast  wealth  possible  ;  they  are  at  once  the  greatest  achieve- 
ment and  the  greatest  necessity  of  social  and  industrial  progress. 

But  these  manifold  benefits  have  not  been  realized  without  their 
attendant  evils.  The  resistless  energy  which  has  produced  these  mar- 
vels of  enterprise  and  utility  was  not  always  begotten  of  wisdom  ;  it  was 
sometimes  the  fatal  offspring  of  folly.  Excessive  and  premature  con- 
struction has  been  forced  by  popular  demand,  or  found  its  incentive  in 
visionary  and  baseless  expectations.  The  schemes  of  reckless  specu- 
lation have  often  resulted  in  a  capitalization  wholly  unwarranted  by 
cost  or  earnings,  while  the  temptations  of  financial  necessity  have  fur- 
nished an  excuse  for  dishonest  management.  The  opportunity  to 
engage  in  the  business  of  railroad  transportation  has  been  practically 
unlimited,  because  under  the  laws  of  the  different  states  the  formation 
of  railway  corporations  is  easily  effected,  and  the  restraints  to  which 
they  are  subjected  meager  and  ineffectual.  Invested  with  extraordinary 
powers  and  used  not  infrequently  as  the  instrument  of  personal 
ambition,  they  have  been  projected  in  many  instances  without  reference 
to  public  requirements,  and  maintain  a  precarious  existence  by  the 
constant  and  shameful  disregard  of  private  rights.     This  prolific  crea- 


50  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

tion  of  common  carriers  by  the  facile  machinery  of  local  statutes  finds 
its  inevitable  outcome  in  the  present  situation.  We  are  confronted  with 
an  aggregation  of  independent  railroads  all  of  which,  with  few  excep- 
tions, derive  their  origin  and  their  power  from  state  authority.  The 
vast  operations  which  they  carry  on  are  controlled  by  separate  boards 
of  management,  and  the  relations  between  different  lines  are  friendly 
or  hostile  as  interest  or  caprice  may  determine.  Their  united  capacity 
greatly  exceeds  the  volume  of  traffic  furnished  for  transportation,  and 
so  a  large  part  of  the  competitive  business  must  either  be  parcelled  out 
by  unstable  agreements,  or  contested  for  from  day  to  day  with  ruinous 
rate  cutting  and  vicious  discriminations.  Every  new  line  increases  the 
friction,  and  frequent  receiverships  testify  of  pecuniary  burdens  which 
current  revenues  will  no  longer  bear. 

It  is  now  so  generally  conceded  as  to  make  argument  unnecessary, 
that  remedial  legislation,  suited  to  present  conditions  and  adequate  to 
permanent  relief,  must  come  from  the  general  government.  The 
restricted  jurisdiction,  and  other  obvious  limitations  upon  the  powers  of 
the  several  states,  preclude  the  exercise  of  that  comprehensive  and 
efficient  authority  required  for  the  regulation  of  public  carriers.  The 
business  of  transportation,  more  than  any  other,  has  become  national  in 
its  character,  and  therefore  the  laws  by  which  its  agencies  are  con- 
trolled, by  which  its  duties  and  privileges  are  measured,  through  which 
its  abuses  are  to  be  corrected,  and  under  which  its  greatest  advantages 
may  be  secured,  must  be  uniform  in  their  operation  and  co-extensive 
with  the  interests  to  which  they  relate.  Upon  this  assumption,  which 
may  safely  be  made,  we  are  brought  to  the  wide  range  of  possibilities 
within  the  sphere  of  congressional  action.  At  one  extreme  lies  the 
policy  of  non-interference,  at  the  other  extreme  is  government  owner- 
ship. Congress  may  return  to  the  attitude  which  it  occupied  before  the 
act  to  regulate  commerce  was  enacted  ;  it  may  refuse  to  assert  any 
authority  over  the  movements  of  interstate  traffic,  and  remit  all  carriers 
to  state  supervision  and  the  uncertain  influence  of  natural  laws,  or  it 
may  inaugurate  a  scheme  by  which  the  various  railways  and  water  lines 
shall  be  acquired,  and  make  the  national  government  sole  proprietor  of 
all  the  facilities  of  transportation.  Prior  to  1887  Congress  had  made 
no  comprehensive  effort  to  regulate  commerce  between  the  states.  Its 
constitutional  power  in  this  direction  had  never  been  exercised  and 
consequently  never  tested.  The  railroads  had  already  absorbed  a  large 
portion  of  the  carrying  trade  and  were  prosecuting  their  operations  far 
and  wide,  regardless  of  state  boundaries,  and  restrained  only  by  the  lax 
and  insufficient  provisions  of  the  local  statutes  by  which  they  were 
chartered.  Under  this  system,  or  want  of  system,  which  characterized 
the  history  of  railway  legislation  up  to  a  recent  period,  there  arose  a 
series  of  evils  and  abuses  which  the  states  seemed  powerless  to  sup- 
press, and  which  assumed  such  startling  proportions  that  the  interfer- 
ence of  Congress  was  vehemently  demanded.  So  the  stat-ute  of  1887 
was  adopted  and  the  work  of  regulation  commenced.  There  is  no  longer 
much  doubt,  I  apprehend,  among  those  qualified  to  judge,  that  the 
supreme  authority  of  the  nation  ought  to  be  exerted,  to  some  extent  at 
least,  in  overseeing  the  movement  and  supervising  the  methods  of 
interstate  commerce.  The  business  of  the  railroads  has  become  so 
immense,  the  interests  they   affect  are  so  enormous  and   far-reaching 


/ 
PRINCIPLES  OF  RAIL  WA  V  LEGISLA  TION.  5 1 

that  their  own  prosperity,  scarcely  less  than  the  protection  of  the  public, 
requires  some  measure  of  national  regulation.  Indeed,  many  of  the 
ablest  and  most  prominent  railway  managers  avow  their  conviction  th  at 
government  supervision  in  one  form  or  another  is  an  admitted  and 
palpable  necessity.  No  incident  in  this  connection  has  greater  signifi- 
cance than  the  recent  appearance  before  a  congressional  committee  of 
men  like  Mr.  Depew  of  the  New  York  Central,  Mr.  Roberts  of  the 
Pennsylvania,  and  others  of  similar  standing,  representing  the  most 
important  lines  and  nearly  half  the  railway  mileage  of  the  United 
States,  insisting  that  the  railroad  interests  of  the  country  require  federal 
protection,  and  urging  that  greater  power  and  efficiency  be  given  to  the 
present  statute.  The  force  of  their  statements  is  not  impaired  by  the 
circumstance  that  they  advocated  a  particular  amendment,  for  their 
utterances  were  positive  and  unequivocal  in  favor  of  national  regula- 
tion. But  whatever  may  be  the  attitude  of  the  railroads  upon  this 
question,  the  idea  that  the  strong  arm  of  the  general  government  shall 
hold  the  balance  of  power  between  the  carriers  and  the  people  has 
taken  a  secure  and  permanent  hold  upon  public  opinion.  There  is  a 
growing  perception  of  the  dependence  of  every  occupation  upon  the 
agencies  by  which  internal  commerce  is  conducted,  and  an  increasing 
determination  to  subject  those  agencies  to  all  needful  control.  The 
people  will  not  tolerate  the  wrong-doing  and  injustice  which  find 
opportunity  in  the  absence  of  legal  restraints,  and  it  may  be  accepted 
as  a  settled  proposition  that  interstate  transportation  will  henceforth  be 
regulated  by  federal  authority.  The  alternative  of  government  owner- 
ship, with  its  consequent  monopoly  of  the  carrying  trade,  while  recom- 
mended strenously  by  some,  has  thus  far  made  little  impression  upon 
public  sentiment  and  exhibits  no  signs  of  popular  approval.  It  is  a 
project  which  seems  wholly  inharmonious  with  the  spirit  and  aims  of 
democracy,  a  scheme  of  such  dangerous  import  that  it  will  be  looked 
to  for  relief  only  when  all  other  remedies  have  proved  unavailing. 
Neither  its  feasibility  nor  its  defects  deserve  serious  discussion. 

Now,  within  the  broad  field  which  invites  the  law-making  power  of 
Congress,  between  non-interference  which  has  been  definitely  aban- 
doned.and  government  ownership  which  is  at  present  impossible,  what 
legislation  is  most  practical  and  appropriate,  and  by  what  statutory 
policy  will  the  rights  and  relations,  both  of  shippers  and  carriers,  be 
most  usefully  controlled.  This  is  the  question  of  immediate  importance 
—  a  question  which  dismays  by  the  difficulties  it  presents,  yet  one  which 
fascinates  attention  by  the  vast  interests  it  concerns. 

It  is  not  my  purpose,  nor  does  it  appear  suitable  at  this  time,  to 
discuss  in  detail  the  various  plans  which  have  been  proposed,  nor  to 
make  myself  an  advocate  of  particular  measures.  I  undertake  nothing 
more  than  to  set  forth,  in  my  own  way  and  from  my  own  standpoint, 
some  general  considerations  which,  in  my  judgment,  should  indicate 
the  range  and  determine  the  character  of  legislative  action. 

In  the  foremost  place,  chief  of  all  others,  is  the  distinctive  nature 
and  peculiar  office  of  public  transportation.  Upon  this  subject  there  is 
still  much  confusion  of  thought  and  a  surprising  want  of  correct  under- 
standing. The  partiality  and  injustice  which  give  rise  to  such  frequent 
complaints  against  public  carriers  may  be  attributed,  in  many  instances, 
to  a  common  misconception  of  the  nature  of  their  services  and  the  office 


52  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

which  they  perform.  The  inherent  difference  between  transportation 
and  the  various  industrial  pursuits  which  depend  upon  it,  is  often  ignored 
or  wholly  overlooked.  Both  the  managers  and  the  patrons  of  rail- 
roads are  slow  to  perceive  that  the  business  of  public  carriage  is  unlike 
other  occupations.  Even  the  opinions  of  learned  judges,  and  the 
language  of  local  enactments,  not  infrequently  disclose  ignorance  or 
indifference  respecting  this  distinction.  The  laws  by  which  railway 
corporations  are  created  are  framed  in  close  analogy  to  the  statutes 
under  which  corporate  bodies  are  organized  for  other  purposes,  the 
legal  regulations  applied  to  their  operation  and  management  are  sub- 
stantially the  same  for  both  classes,  and,  in  a  variety  of  ways,  the 
public  function  of  the  former  is  confounded  with  the  private  interests  of 
the  latter.  Now,  it  cannot  be  too  strongly  insisted  upon  that  the 
"  right "  of  a  corporation  to  construct  and  operate  a  railroad  is  funda- 
mentally and  radically  different  from  the  "right"  of  the  public  to  use 
and  enjoy  its  facilities.  It  is  one  thing  to  own  a  railway ;  it  is  quite 
another  thing  to  be  entitled  to  its  services.  One  is  a  property  right,  the 
other  a  personal  right ;  one  is  a  possession,  the  other  a  privilege  ;  one 
is  an  acquisition,  the  other  an  endowment  ;  one  may  be  bartered  away, 
the  other  is  "  inalienable."  In  the  very  nature  of  social  order,  trans- 
portation is  a  necessity.  It  stands  in  the  catalogue  of  primary  wants. 
To  provide  the  highways  of  travel  and  the  agencies  of  commercial 
exchange  is  a  function  of  government,  in  every  sense  legitimate  and  in 
every  respect  essential.  To  regard  these  agencies  as  a  species  of 
property,  subject  to  the  same  rules  which  govern  the  accumulation  and 
enjoyment  of  other  possessions,  is  a  mistaken  and  mischievous  concep- 
tion. Transportation  is  not  a  commodity.  Its  physical  appliances,  its 
fixtures  and  franchises  are  property  ;  they  are  acquired.  Not  so  the 
right  to  its  facilities  ;  that  is  enjoyed.  The  ownership  of  the  carrier  is 
the  privilege  of  the  public.  This  privilege  differs  from  every  form  of 
private  enterprise,  for  it  is  afforded  by  virtue  of  authority  proceeding 
from  the  state.  There  is  no  natural  right  in  the  individual  to  engage  in 
the  business  of  railway  transportation,  because  that  business  can  be 
carried  on  only  by  taking  private  property  against  the  will  of  the 
owner,  and  that  high  prerogative  belongs  to  the  government  alone.  To 
provide  the  necessary  means  of  public  carriage  the  railroad  must 
exercise  extraordinary  powers,  which  are  secured  from  and  delegated 
by  the  state.  Through  these  delegated  powers,  by  the  aid  of  this  un- 
usual and  supreme  authority,  it  participates  in  the  duties  of  civil 
administration,  and  discharges  obligations  which  are  founded  in  the 
constitution  of  society.  The  railroad,  therefore,  can  rightfully  do 
nothing  which  the  state  itself  might  not  do  if  it  performed  this  public 
service  by  its  own  agents,  instead  of  entrusting  it  to  corporations  which 
it  has  created. 

Upon  this  foundation,  laid  in  the  nature  and  necessities  of  social 
order,  rests  the  inherent  right  of  every  person  to  just  and  equal  treat- 
ment m  all  that  pertains  to  public  transportation.  In  fixing  the  basis 
of  rates  and  charges,  no  carrier  should  be  permitted  to  make  dis- 
criminations either  between  individuals  or  localities.  The  right  to  use 
the  agencies  by  which  inter-communication  is  effected,  and  by  which 
all  the  products  of  labor  acquire  exchangeable  value,  is  a  common  and 
fundamental  right,  the  very  essence  of  which  is  equality.     If  the  gov- 


PRINCIPLES  OF  RAIL  WA  V  LE  CIS  LA  TION.  5  3 

ernment  itself  should  undertake  to  supply  the  public  need  in  this  direc- 
tion, no  sort  of  partiality  would  be  tolerated  or  attempted.  Every 
function  which  the  state  performs,  every  power  which  it  directly 
exercises,  and  every  activity  which  it  exclusively  controls  must  be  for 
the  equal  benefit  of  all.  Any  difference  between  wholesale  and  retail 
prices  for  the  privileges  and  immunities,  which  public  authority  is 
bound  to  provide,  is  offensive  and  intolerable.  For  the  government  to 
make  distinctions  in  its  modes  of  operation,  by  reason  of  the  amount  of 
service  which  it  may  be  required  to  perform,  or  on  account  of  the 
differing  industries  and  occupations  of  its  subjects,  is  to  depart  from  its 
legitimate  sphere,  and  violate  the  principle  upon  which  it  is  founded. 
The  farmer  who  sends  but  one  letter  a  year  is  entitled  to  the  same  rate 
of  postage  as  the  merchant  who  sends  hundreds  a  day.  The  measure 
of  import  duties  is  the  same,  whether  the  entry  be  a  case  or  a  cargo. 
The  amount  of  service  never  affects  the  relative  price.  Much  or  little, 
it  is  all  in  the  same  proportion. 

This  is  the  rule  which  should  be  rigidly  applied  to  public  trans- 
portation. Impartiality,  strict  and  unvarying,  is  the  requirement  which 
should  be  firmly  imposed,  and  from  that  standard  no  deviation  should 
be  permitted.  The  carrier  may  not  be  allowed  to  discriminate  between 
individuals  on  account  of  their  position,  influence  or  personal  qualities, 
for  these  distinctions  furnish  no  ground  for  giving  one  person  cheaper 
conveyance  than  another.  The  large  shipper  is  entitled  to  no  advan- 
tage over  his  smaller  competitor,  either  as  to  charges  or  facilities,  for 
both  should  be  served  at  the  same  rate.  If  concessions  to  particular 
persons,  because  of  their  greater  patronage,  would  not  be  possible 
under  government  ownership,  they  should  not  be  permitted  under 
private  ownership.  If  in  one  case  the  rule  of  equality  would  be 
observed,  in  the  other  it  should  be  enforced.  As  I  view  the  matter,  the 
state  has  as  much  right  to  farm  out  the  business  of  collecting  revenues 
or  preserving  the  peace,  and  allow  the  parties  performing  those  offices 
to  vary  the  rate  of  taxation  according  to  their  own  interest,  or  sell 
personal  protection  to  the  highest  bidder,  as  it  has  to  permit  the  great 
function  of  public  carriage  to  be  the  subject  of  special  bargain  and 
secret  dicker,  to  be  made  unequal  by  favoritism  or  oppressive  by  extor- 
tion. No  service  which  government  undertakes  to  perform  can  be 
made  useful,  and  no  duty  which  rests  upon  it  is  more  imperative  than 
to  secure  to  the  people  just  and  equal  treatment  by  every  common 
carrier. 

This  duty  is  recognized  with  great  clearness  of  perception  in  the 
"Act  to  Regulate  Commerce."  It  was  the  intention  of  Congress,  in 
that  enactment,  to  insure  fairness  and  impartiality  in  all  that  relates  to 
railway  transportation.  The  provisions  of  the  act  are  restrictive  in 
character,  and  they  call  for  a  construction  in  harmony  with  their 
beneficent  aims.  It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  federal  courts,  in 
some  instances  at  least,  have  seemed  unable  to  realize  their  scope  or  to 
appreciate  their  purposes.  The  grave  conditions  which  existed  when 
this  statute  was  passed  appear  to  have  been  left  out  of  view,  and  full 
weight  has  not  been  accorded  to  the  express  declaration  that  its  regu- 
lative features  were  an  addition  to  remedies  furnished  by  the  common 
law.  It  was  the  design  of  Congress  to  provide  something  more  than  a 
procedure  for  the  correction  of  demonstrated  wrongs  ;  its  higher  and 


54  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

broader  endeavor  was  to  prevent  wrong  doing.  To  that  end  general 
rules  for  the  government  of  carriers  were  prescribed,  rules  well 
calculated  it  would  seem  to  secure  the  actual  and  relative  equality 
which  results  from  effective  regulation.  The  filing  and  publication  of 
rate  sheets,  for  example,  is  not  merely  a  standard  for  determining 
whether  particular  charges  are  unjust  or  discriminatory,  and  by  which 
reparation  to  injured  parties  may  be  measured,  but  the  more  significant 
purpose  is  found  in  the  provision  that  the  rates  so  filed  and  published 
are  the  only  compensation  which  the  carrier  may  charge,  collect  or 
receive.  It  is  not  left  for  any  tribunal  to  decide,  whether  a  variation  in 
rates  for  like  and  contemporaneous  service  inflicts  injury  upon  an 
individual  or  a  community,  the  law  itself  declares  that  a  departure  from 
schedule  charges  is  per  se  unjust  discrimination,  and  unlawful.  The 
long  and  short  haul  clause  contains  a  similar  declaration.  It  is  un- 
necessary to  show  that  undue  preference  or  prejudice  results  from 
charges  which  are  greater  for  longer  than  for  shorter  distances  over  the 
same  line,  for  such  an  adjustment  of  rates,  in  ordinary  cases,  is  con- 
demned by  the  terms  of  the  statute.  Yet  some  judges  have  con- 
strued these  prohibitions  as  applying  only  where  actual  damage 
results  to  an  assignable  person.  Such  a  construction  virtually  treats 
the  carrier  as  a  private  corporation,  takes  little  account  of  its  public 
obligations,  and  overlooks  the  real  purpose  of  the  law-making  power  in 
enjoining  compliance  with  its  requirements.  The  peculiar  office  which 
transportation  performs  is  often  obscured  by  issues  founded  upon 
individual  rights,  and  concrete  questions  arising  from  the  contract  rela- 
tions between  shipper  and  carrier  not  unfrequently  exclude  considera- 
tions of  public  policy,  far  more  important  than  the  particular 
controversy.  For  these  reasons  the  early  action  of  Congress  should  be 
invoked  ior  a  legislative  construction  of  important  features  of  the  act, 
an  interpretation  so  definite  and  unmistakable  that  neither  can  its  pro- 
visions be  questioned  nor  its  wholesome  purpose  defeated.  Crude  and 
imperfect  as  this  statute  is,  difficult  of  enforcement  and  weakened  by 
adverse  decisions,  nevertheless  it  is  the  legislative  expression  of  a 
great  and  vital  principle.  It  contains  the  substance  of  correct  doctrine 
respecting  the  office  and  obligations  of  public  carriers,  and  emphasizes 
the  conviction  that  their  proper  regulation  is  a  recognized  national 
duty. 

In  a  general  sense  it  is  quite  true  that  all  measures  of  legislation 
are  means  to  the  one  end  of  securing,  at  all  times  and  under  all  cir- 
cumstances, just  and  equal  charges  for  public  transportation.  But  in 
devising  the  legal  machinery  by  which  that  consummation  shall  be 
most  speedily  reached,  and  the  full  benefits  of  equality  most  com- 
pletely enjoyed,  other  considerations  than  those  relating  to  the  nature 
and  office  of  public  carriage  demand  earnest  and  thoughtful  attention. 
I  am  very  much  impressed  with  the  notion  that  the  facilities  of  domes- 
tic transportation,  the  agencies  by  which  inter-communication  is 
maintained  and  the  distribution  of  industrial  products  effected,  should 
be  regarded  in  their  entirety  and  treated  as  a  single  and  indivisible 
unit  for  all  the  purposes  of  legal  regulation.  Every  railway  and  every 
water  line  constitutes  an  inseparable  element  of  a  vast  and  intricate 
organism.  There  are  many  members,  yet  but  one  body.  Practically 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  an  independent  and  isolated  carrier  by  rail 


PRINCIPLES  OF  RAILWAY  LEGISLATION.  55 

or  by  water.  Between  the  different  parts  of  this  complex  system  there 
is  such  mutual  dependence,  such  intimate  relationship,  that  whatever 
affects  one  must  in  greater  or  less  degree  affect  the  others  also.  If  one 
member  suffers,  all  the  members  suffer  with  it.  Transportation  is  a 
constant  and  universal  necessity.  There  is  no  time  when  its  facilities 
can  be  dispensed  with,  no  place  where  its  services  are  not  urgently 
demanded.  It  is  the  ever-present  and  unyielding  condition  upon 
which  personal  welfare  and  social  progress  continually  depend.  For 
this  reason  state  legislation  is  unsuitable  in  scope  and  must  be  inade- 
quate in  action.  It  is  influenced  by  the  circumstances  and  prejudices 
of  locality,  and  is  therefore  unequal  in  its  operation  and  changeable 
in  its  attempted  restraints.  So  far  as  it  undertakes  the  task  of  regula- 
tion, it  is  liable  to  be  feeble  and  inefficient  in  results,  or  it  may  be  so 
vexatious  and  burdensome  as  to  be  plainly  oppressive.  Both  habits 
find  illustration  in  local  statutes  recently  enacted.  But  the  function  of 
public  carriage  cannot  be  separated  into  parts,  as  the  country  is 
divided  into  states.  By  the  union  of  sovereignties  it  becomes  inter- 
state and  national.  It  cannot  be  segregated  without  fatal  impairment. 
It  is  the  nerve  power  of  the  nation,  sensitive  to  its  furthest  extremities ; 
to  divide  it  is  to  destroy  it.  The  laws  which  regulate  property  in 
different  localities  may  be  variable  and  conflicting  without  serious 
injury,  but  the  laws  which  regulate  commerce  must  be  uniform  and 
harmonious  in  all  the  territory  which  submits  to  one  jurisdiction. 
Rights  which  are  acquired  may  be  varying  and  dissimilar  as  between 
one  state  and  another,  but  rights  which  are  inalienable,  which  are  a 
privilege  and  not  a  possession,  must  have  common  and  equal  j^otec- 
tion  in  every  part  of  the  union. 

This  point  of  view  permits  two  or  three  more  specific  observations. 
If  the  propositions  already  stated  are  correct,  it  follows  that  any 
scheme  of  legislative  control  designed  to  give  greater  efficiency  and 
value  to  this  public  service,  and  to  promote  thereby  the  general  wel- 
fare, should  embrace  in  its  provisions  all  the  agencies  of  transportation 
which  are  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  general  government.  The  act 
to  regulate  commerce,  therefore,  is  insufficient  in  scope,  because  it 
extends  only  to  interstate  carriers  by  rail,  and  leaves  untouched  and 
unregulated  the  great  volume  of  traffic  which  seeks  transportation  by 
water.  But  rail  carriage  and  water  carriage  are  inseparably  con- 
nected. They  act  and  react  upon  each  other.  They  cannot  be 
dissociated  in  fact  and  ought  not  to  be  in  law.  Their  united  facilities 
are  demanded  by  public  requirement.  They  join  in  a  common  ser- 
vice. The  internal  water  routes  by  lake  and  river  and  canal,  and 
the  coastwise  lines  of  gulf  and  ocean,  transport  an  enormous  tonnage 
between  points  near  and  remote,  and  thereby  give  indispensable  aid 
to  commercial  prosperity.  They  are  confined  to  the  highways  which 
nature  has  provided,  while  the  railroad  can  choose  its  location  and 
change  it  at  pleasure.  Each  mode  of  conveyance  has  its  peculiar 
advantages ;  each  is  a  competitor  for  public  favor.  Both  of  them 
participate  in  interstate  carriage,  and  the  constitutional  power  of  Con- 
gress "to  regulate  commerce  between  the  several  states"  applies  with 
full  efficacy  to  all  the  agencies  of  water  transportation.  The  same 
reasons  which  induced  the  law-making  power  to  place  railway  lines 
under  specific  restraints   call  for  like   limitations  upon  the  delegated 


56  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

powers  with  which  water  carriers  are  also  invested.  The  circumstance 
that  one  carrier  uses  the  natural  facilities  of  inter-communication, 
while  an  artificial  roadway  must  be  constructed  by  the  other,  affords 
no  excuse  for  exempting  the  former  from  any  obligation  rightfully 
imposed  upon  the  latter.  Each  forms  a  part  of  an  inseparable  sys- 
tem ;  each  is  a  custodian  of  a  public  privilege,  and  each  should  be 
amenable  to  public  authority.  Not  only  upon  grounds  of  abstract 
justice,  but  for  the  benefit  of  the  people  and  in  furtherance  of  the 
objects  for  which  the  duty  of  railway  regulation  was  assumed,  the 
government  should  include  in  its  plan  of  supervision  all  the  agencies 
of  water  transportation  within  its  jurisdiction. 

Again,  no  just  theory  of  legislative  action  will  proceed  upon  the 
assumption  that  the  people  alone  are  in  need  of  protection,  and  that 
the  railroads  can  take  care  of  themselves.  I  have  little  sympathy  with 
such  an  unfair  and  illogical  contention.  Between  shippers  and 
carriers  there  is  reciprocal  dependence  rather  than  mutuality  of 
interest.  Neither  can  exist  alone  ;  neither  is  independent.  The  bonds 
which  hold  them  together  are  indissoluble,  yet  are  they  so  conjoined 
that  one  of  them  cannot  gain  undue  advantage  without  positive  injury 
to  the  other.  The  shipper  is  entitled  to  have  his  property  transported 
at  a  reasonable  price ;  the  carrier  is  equally  entitled  to  reasonable 
compensation  for  performing  the  service.  The  collision  of  pecuniary 
motives  by  which  both  parties  are  influenced  gives  rise  to  the  contro- 
versy over  rates  and  charges.  This  conflict  is  incessant  and  sometimes 
extremely  severe.  But  the  shipper  is  not  always  the  under  dog  in  the 
fight.  It  happens  upon  occasion  that  he  gets  much  the  best  of  the  bar- 
gain. The  necessity  of  the  carrier  is  not  unfrequently  the  opportunity 
which  the  shipper  does  not  scruple  to  turn  to  his  own  profit.  Odious 
extortions  have  often  been  practiced  by  carriers,  but  shippers  also  are 
sometimes  arbitrary  and  unjust.  The  public  service  in  which  the 
carrier  engages  is  undertaken  for  private  gain  ;  the  shipper  avails  him- 
self of  this  public  service,  likewise  for  private  gain.  The  selfishness  of 
human  nature  is  on  both  sides  of  the  transaction.  Now  the  object 
of  legal  regulation  is  to  hold  these  opposing  forces  in  stable  equilib- 
rium, to  reduce  contests  and  complaints  to  a  minimum,  and  to  brin  g 
the  dealings  between  shipper  and  carrier  under  the  control  of  mutual 
justice.  The  sufficient  scheme  of  legislation,  therefore,  will  recognize 
the  possibility  of  wrong-doing  on  one  side  as  well  as  on  the  other ;  it 
will  be  judicial  rather  than  partisan  in  its  aims  and  requirements,  and 
while  equipping  the  shipper  with  ample  protection  will  also  furnish 
the  carrier  with  all  needful  defenses.  This  seems  especially  true  of 
relative  rates  between  competing  centers  of  trade  and  between  com- 
petitive articles  of  traffic.  Questions  of  this  character  are  constantly 
arising  and  their  intricacy  is  beyond  all  comparison.  They  must  be 
brought  to  solution  by  judicial  procedure  and  judicial  determination. 
So  far  as  the  law  can  provide  remedies  for  grievances  of  this  descrip- 
tion they  should  be  available  to  the  carrier  as  well  as  the  shipper.  It 
may  sometimes  occur  that  just  results  can  be  reached  only  by  directions 
which  tend  to  the  pecuniary  advantage  of  the  carrier  ;  but  justice  is 
the  end  to  be  attained  by  remedial  legislation,  and  its  defeat  should 
never  be  occasioned  by  defective  or  one-sided  enactments.  I  therefore 
concur  with  Judge  Veazey  that  the  power  to  determine  what  charges  are 


PRINCIPLES  OF  RAIL  WA  V  LEGLSLA  TLON.  5  7 

reasonable,  a  power  without  which  all  attempts  at  regulation  are  delusive, 
should  include  and  carry  with  it  the  power  to  prescribe  minimum  as 
well  as  maximum  rates.  Reasonable  payment  by  the  shipper  and 
reasonable  remuneration  to  the  carrier  are  alike  involved  in  the  idea  of 
public  regulation ;  and  legislation  which  expresses  the  full  meaning 
of  such  regulation  and  makes  its  full  purpose  effective  will  not  be 
wanting  in  provisions  which  conserve  the  interest  both  of  the  public 
and  the  public  servant. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  regulative  powers  conferred  upon 
Congress  by  the  federal  constitution  are  not  wisely  or  justly  exerted 
if  the  effect  of  their  operation  diminishes  the  ability  of  domestic 
carriers  to  meet  the  competition  of  rivals  not  subject  to  our  jurisdiction. 
The  proposition  requires  no  argument.  While  due  regard  should  be 
had  for  the  interests  of  American  shippers  and  passengers,  it  is  mani- 
fest that  no  advantage  in  respect  to  domestic  traffic  should  be  given  to 
foreign  lines  of  transportation  by  means  of  inflexible  restrictions  upon 
our  own  carriers.  The  true  policy  will  be  found,  I  apprehend,  in  com- 
pelling these  foreign  roads,  under  the  coercion  of  statutory  restrictions 
imposed  by  Congress,  to  practically  subject  themselves  to  the  pro- 
visions of  the  act  to  regulate  commerce  by  making  compliance  with 
its  requirements  the  condition  of  engaging  in  international  business. 

This  view  of  the  nature  and  office  of  public  transportation,  and  the 
necessity  for  its  just  and  uniform  regulation  by  federal  authority,  forces 
upon  us  another  question  of  immediate  and  pressing  importance  con- 
cerning which  I  feel  bound  to  state  in  a  few  words  my  personal 
ccTnvictions.  Legislation  upon  this  subject,  I  am  thoroughly  persuaded, 
to  be  adequate  in  design  and  capable  of  accomplishing  the  most  useful 
results,  must  recognize  and  adjust  itself  to  the  cooperative  tendencies 
which  mark  the  closing  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  advent 
of  steam  and  electricity  has  not  only  wrought  a  revolution  in  all  the 
methods  of  distribution  and  exchange,  but  is  fast  undermining  the 
economic  theories  so  long  and  so  implicitly  accepted.  It  is  folly  to 
shut  our  eyes  to  unmistakable  facts,  or  to  stand  in  the  way  of  inevitable 
events.  The  competitive  philosophy  of  Adam  Smith  may  have  satis- 
fied the  era  of  stage  coaches  and  spinning  wheels,  but  it  will  not 
answer  the  purposes  or  meet  the  requirements  of  this  marvellous  gene- 
ration so  restless  in  thought  and  resistless  in  action.  As  astronomy  has 
been  corrected,  theology  revised,  and  civil  administration  emancipated 
from  the  tyranny  of  irresponsible  power,  so  our  political  economy  and 
many  inherited  notions  respecting  the  diffusion  of  wealth  and  the 
acquisition  of  property  must  be  largely  modified  if  not  wholly  recon- 
structed. When  communities  were  isolated  by  distance,  and  the  sphere 
of  activity  confined  within  local  limits ;  when  it  took  two  weeks  to  haul 
a  wagon-load  of  goods  from  London  to  Edinburgh,  the  attrition  of 
rivalry  was  complacently  endured.  But  now  when  the  ocean  is 
bridged  by  the  steamship  and  every  sea  threaded  with  whispering 
wires  ;  when  the  swift  locomotive,  rushing  across  continents  like  the 
shuttle  through  the  loom,  weaves  this  many-hued  and  majestic  fabric 
of  commerce  which  covers  the  globe ;  when  men  are  no  longer  localized 
in  effort  or  achievement,  and  the  thought  of  one  is  the  instantaneous 
possession  of  all,  the  friction  of  unbridled  competition  has  become  irk- 
some and  intolerable.     Some  relief  from  its  hardships  and  some  check 


58  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  COA'GRESS. 

upon  its  wastefulness  must  surely  be  provided.  Fools  may  deride  and 
demagogues  denounce,  but  neither  protestation  nor  agitation  nor  legisl 
lation  can  impeach  the  utility  or'  prevent  the  advance  of  industria- 
federation. 

Competition  is  essentially  selfish  in  its  nature,  unbrotherly  in  its 
instincts  and  uncharitable  in  its  methods.  It  is  the  effort  of  the  indi- 
vidual to  gain  personal  advantage  at  the  expense  of  his  fellows,  and 
its  cruel  creed  is  "every  man  for  himself."  Such  a  doctrine  is  quite 
unsuited  to  the  interlacing  and  interdependent  activities  of  a  complex 
civilization,  and  wholly  unequal  to  the  increasing  demands  of  associated 
life.  The  whole  trend  of  modern  industry  is  towards  wider  fraternity, 
larger  organization,  cheaper  production  and  distribution,  to  the  end 
that  all  labor  may  receive  more  stable  and  adequate  reward,  and 
thereby  the  welfare  of  wage  earner,  and  wage  payer  as  well,  most 
surely  promoted.  As  the  implements  of  modern  warfare  are  becoming 
so  devasting  in  their  effects  that  nations  will  be  compelled  to  live  in 
amity,  so  the  destructiveness  and  exhaustion  of  competitive  industry 
make  monopoly  a  necessity. 

In  the  vast  business  of  public  carriage  —  the  business  which  unites 
every  craft  and  vocation,  and  furnishes  at  once  opportunity  and  incen- 
tive for  every  pursuit  —  some  way  of  escape  must  be  afforded  from  the 
rigors  and  reprisals  of  unrestricted  competition.  The  situation  of  many 
railways  at  the  present  time  is  not  unlike  that  of  the  great  powers  of 
Europe.  Each  in  a  state  of  armed  neutrality  watches  the  other  with 
jealous  suspicion,  while,  in  their  most  amicable  relations  between  them- 
selves, they  maintain  an  approximate  peace  by  lavish  preparation  for 
war.  The  process  is  expensive  —  the  result  unsatisfactory.  Their 
revenues  are  depleted,  their  management  embarrassed,  their  usefulness 
greatly  impaired.  They  take  from  the  substance  of  the  people  more 
than  three  millions  of  dollars  a  day  —  an  enormous  tax  in  the  aggre- 
gate, yet  their  surplus  earnings  often  fall  below  the  requirements  of 
solvency,  and  are  seldom  sufficient  to  relieve  the  anxiety  of  investors. 
The  facts  of  common  experience  and  familiar  knowledge  demonstrate 
the  inconsistency  and  unwisdom  of  a  legislative  policy  which  enforces 
competition  by  legal  decree,  and  at  the  same  time  condemns  as  mis- 
demeanors the  methods  and  inducements  by  which  competition  is 
usually  effected.  The  time  has  come  for  harmonizing  the  operations 
and  combining  the  facilities  of  common  carriers,  that  they  may  better 
meet  the  demand  for  equal  treatment,  stable  rates  and  cheaper  trans- 
portation. Surely  this  goverment  is  strong  enough  and  great  enough  ; 
surely  it  has  the  power  and  sagacity  to  permit  this  incomparable -ser- 
vice to  be  performed  by  friendly  association,  and  at  the  same  time 
provide  the  public  with  ample  protection  against  all  the  dangers  of 
corporate  monopoly. 


REG  ULA  TION  OF  TKANSPOR  TA  TION.  5  9 


GOVERNMENTAL  REGULATION  OF  TRANSPORTATION 
AND  ITS  PRACTICAL  EFFECT. 


JOHN  W.  GARY,  ESQ.,    GENERAL    COUNSEL    CHICAGO,  MILWAUKEE    &    ST. 
PAUL    RAILWAY    COMPANY,    CHICAGO- 


This  proposition  is  very  broad  in  its  terms,  sufficiently  so  to  include 
not  only  all  railroads  by  whomsoever  owned,  whether  by  the  govern- 
ment or  by  private  individuals  or  corporations,  and  also  all  other  kinds 
of  transportation.  It  is  not  proposed,  however,  at  this  time,  to  cover  all 
the  ground  legitimately  within  the  terms  of  the  proposition,  but  the 
discussion  will  be  confined  to  railroads  only. 

In  many  of  the  countries  of  Europe,  railroads  are  owned  by  the 
government,  and,  of  course,  are  under  governmental  control  in  all 
respects,  and  in  all  their  departments.  In  this  country  they  are  owned 
mostly,  if  not  exclusively,  by  private  corporations  or  individuals,  and 
the  government,  neither  state  or  national,  has  any  pecuniary  interest  or 
ownership  therein.  Notwithstanding  their  private  ownership,  it  is 
claimed,  and  the  claim  is  admitted,  that  the  government  has,  to  a 
certain  extent,  a  right  of  control  or  regulation  over  its  railroads,  and 
although  the  proposition  to  be  discussed  is,  in  its  terms,  sufficiently 
broad  to  cover  both  classes  of  roads,  it  is  believed  that  its  object  was  to 
consider  only  roads  not  owned  by  the  government,  and  this  paper  will 
only  attempt  to  deal  with  the  question  in  respect  to  the  right  of  govern- 
mental control  or  regulation  of  such  roads. 

It  is  somewhat  of  an  anomaly  that  property  owned  exclusively  by 
individuals  should  be  subject  to  governmental  regulation  or  control  in 
its  use  and  operation ;  but  it  is  admitted  that  such  right  of  regulation  or 
control  exists  in  respect  to  certain  kinds  of  property,  and  that  railroads 
owned  by  private  corporations  or  individuals  are  of  that  class.  In  dis- 
cussing this  proposition,  one  of  the  most  important  questions  to  be 
considered  is  the  reason  and  purpose  of  this  principle  and  the  extent  of 
such  regulation  and  control  under  our  law. 

The  word  "regulation"  only  is  used  in  the  proposition  proposed, 
yet  regulation  of  the  use  of  another's  property  necessarily  implies 
control  thereof  to  a  greater  or  less  extent.  The  word  control  is  there- 
fore added  as  a  necessary  consequence  of  regulation. 

This  principle  applies,  in  oiir  law,  in  all  cases  where  private 
property  is  devoted  to  a  public  use.  A  railroad  is  such  property,  no 
matter  who  owns  it.  "The  use  is  public  because  the  public  may  create 
it,  and  the  individual  creating  it  is  doing,  thereby  and  pro  tanto,  the 
work  of  the  state,"  and  in  so  doing  he  devotes  his  property  to  a  public 
use.  In  order  that  an  individual  or  corporation  may  construct  and 
operate  a  railroad,  it  is  necessary  for  him  to  receive  from  the  state 
certain  grants  and  franchises. 


6o  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

1st.  The  right  to  exercise  the  power  of  eminent  domain  of  the  state 
in  securing  the  right  of  way  necessary  for  the  road. 

2d.  The  privilege  of  locating  its  road  bed  and  tracks  along  and 
across  public  streams,  highways  and  other  thoroughfares  ;  and 

3rd.  The  franchise  and  privilege  to  build,  maintain,  own  and 
operate  a  railroad — which  but  for  this  grant  would  be  adjudged  a 
nuisance  in  respect  to  other  property  affected  by  it. 

Such  franchises  are  public  grants,  and  clothe  the  property  constitut- 
ing the  railway  with  a  public  use.  It  gives  it  a  semi-public  character, 
and  subjects  it  to  the  regulation  and  control  of  the  government,  in 
behalf  of  the  public,  to  the  extent  that  its  charges  must  be  reasonable, 
and  its  management  safe  and  convenient  for  the  accommodation  of  the 
public.  This  right  of  governmental  regulation  or  control  has  been  the 
subject  of  very  much  discussion  and  widely  different  views  as  to  its 
extent  and  purpose.  Many  have  insisted  that  this  qualified  right  of 
regulation  and  control  in  the  government  is  an  absolute  right,  extend- 
ing even  to  confiscation  of  the  property,  and  that  the  governmental 
power,  however  unwisely  and  injuriously  exercised,  was  not  subject  to 
any  limitation,  control,  or  corrections.  The  legislatures  of  the  different 
states  have,  many  of  them,  assumed  that  their  power  over  the  charges 
and  management  of  railroads  was  supreme  ;  that  the  right  to  fix  and 
establish  the  rates  to  be  charged,  and,  in  many  cases,  the  mode  and 
manner  of  operation  of  the  road,  belonged  to  the  legislature,  and  that 
the  companies  owing  the  properties  had  no  rights  which  they  were 
bound  to  respect.  This  extreme  view  was  substantially  sanctioned  by 
the  earlier  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  and  the 
Chief  Justice,  in  his  opinion  in  the  Munn  case,  held  that  the  remedying 
of  the  abuse  of  such  power  was  not  a  judicial  question,  and  declared 
that  "  for  protection  against  abuses  by  legislatures  in  this  respect,  the 
owners  of  roads  must  resort  to  the  polls  and  not  to  the  courts." 

The  only  object  and  purpose  that  the  government  can  have  in  such 
a  matter  is  to  protect  the  public  in  their  just  rights.  When  this  protec- 
tion is  secured,  governmental  regulation  and  control  ceases.  The  only 
rights  of  the  public  in  that  respect  are  that  the  railroads  should  be 
properly,  safely  and  conveniently  operated,  and  for  a  reasonable  com- 
pensation. The  public  have  the  right  to  the  use  of  the  property  for  a 
reasonable  compensation,  and  that  its  operation  shall  be  safe  and  con- 
venient to  them.  It  has  no  right  to  manage  or  operate  the  road.  The 
public  have  no  claim  to  be  served  at  less  than  a  reasonable  compensa- 
tion to  the  owner  for  the  use  of  the  property,  and  in  a  manner 
reasonably  convenient  and  with  safety.  The  owner,  as  such,  is  entitled 
to  that  compensation,  th'e  control  and  management  of  the  property,  and 
an  act  of  the  legislature  that  deprives  him  of  it,  or  any  portion  thereof, 
is  a  violation  of  his  vested  rights,  and  a  taking  of  his  property  without 
compensation  or  due  process  of  law.  Manifestly,  therefore,  the  extent 
of  the  power  of  the  government  to  control  railroads  is  to  secure  for  the 
public  the  proper,  safe  and  convenient  operation  of  the  roads  for  a 
reasonable  compensation.  When  these  objects  are  accomplished,  the 
function  of  the  government  in  the  regulation,  control  and  management 
of  railroads  owned  by  individuals  is  accomplished.  The  public  rights 
are  fully  secured,  and  the  government  has  no  further  control  over  rail- 
road property  than  it  has  over  property  not  attached  to  a  public  use. 


REGULATION  OF  TRANSPORTATION.  61 

In  consequence  of  the  railroads  being  so  clothed  by  law  with  a 
public  use,  the  company  is  bound  to  perform  the  services  required  of  it 
for  a  reasonable  compensation,  and  it  is  the  right  and  duty  of  the  state, 
if  necessary,  to  see  to  it  that  the  company  charges  only  reasonable 
rates,  and  to  take  such  action  as  may  be  proper  to  attain  that  end.' 
This  clothing  of  the  property  by  law  with  a  public  use  does  not 
authorize  the  state  to  fix,  or  compel  the  company  to  fix  its  charges  at 
an  unreasonably  low  rate,  or  at  rates  that  would  not  furnish  to  it  just 
and  proper  compensation.  It  does  not  confer  upon  the  legislature  any 
power  to  fix  the  rates  of  the  company,  or  do  anything  in  that  respect, 
except  to  make  such  necessary  and  proper  rules  and  regulations  as  will 
result  in  fixing  reasonable  rates  by  the  company.  The  right  to  fix  and 
establish  the  rates  to  be  charged,  and  the  manner  of  the  operation  of 
the  roads,  notwithstanding  this  public  use,  and  the  duties  and  obliga- 
tions thereby  imposed,  remains  with  the  owner  of  the  property,  and  it 
is  its  duty  to  fix  reasonable  rates  for  services  to  be  performed,  and  safe 
and  convenient  modes  of  transportation.  The  only  right  which  the 
public  can  claim,  or  the  legislature  or  state  enforce  in  regard  to  the 
price  to  be  paid  for  the  use  of  private  property,  clothed  with  a  public 
use,  or  its  management  or  operation,  is  that  the  owner  should  be 
restricted  to  the  charge  of  a  reasonable  compensation,  and  reasonably 
convenient  and  safe  operation. 

Judge  Strong  in  15th  of  Wallace,  277,  says  (speaking  for  the 
Supreme  Court)  m  regard  to  the  right  of  the  company  to  fix  its  rates, 
"that  right  is  an  attribute  of  ownership:  ....  The  right  to  make 
terms  for  the  use  of  the  roadway  is  in  the  grantee  of  the  franchises, 
not  in  the  grantor." 

The  state  has  no  more  right  to  assume  the  regulation,  control  or 
management  of  property  affected  with  a  public  use,  than  it  has  of 
property  not  so  affected,  except  as  above  stated,  and  the  right  to  fix 
the  price  of  the  use  of  all  property  and  its  management  and  control, 
inheres  in  the  owner  thereof,  the  same  in  one  case  as  the  other,  except 
as  above  stated,  and  within  the  bounds  of  reasonable  compensation,  the 
right  of  the  owner  to  fix  the  charges  for  the  use  of  property  clothed  by 
law  with  a  public  use  cannot  be  questioned  any  more  than  the  right  to 
property  not  so  clothed. 

In  the  case  of  Munn  vs.  Illinois,  g4  United  States,  which  was  not  a 
railroad  but  an  elevator  case,  the  court  held  that  the  legislature  had  the 
right  to  fix  the  compensation  to  be  paid  to  elevators  ;  that  their  decision 
was  final,  and,  although  destructive  of  the  property,  that  there  could  be 
no  appeal  to  the  courts  for  relief.  Although  this  was  not  a  railroad 
case,  the  doctrine  of  the  decision  was  applied  to  railroads  by  that 
court,  and  has  been  largely  followed  in  the  state  courts  in  railroad 
cases.  This  decision  was  made  in  1876.  At  the  October  term,  in  1889, 
the  question  involved  was  again  brought  before  the  court,  as  applied  to 
railroads,  after  the  lapse  of  thirteen  years,  in  the  case  of  the  Chicago, 
Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul  railway  company  against  Minnesota,  134 
U.  S.  418.  In  that  case,  under  the  statute  of  Minnesota,  the  railroad 
commission  of  that  state  had  attempted  to  fix  the  price  of  the  trans- 
portation of  milk,  against  the  consent  of  the  company,  in  which  they 
set  aside  the  rate  fixed  by  the  company  and  established  a  different  rate, 
which  the  company  insisted  was   unjust  and  unreasonable,  and  not  a 


62  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

proper  compensation.  The  Supreme  Court  of  Minnesota  held,  in  an 
action  of  mandamus  to  compel  the  company  to  adopt  the  rate  fixed  by 
the  commission,  that  the  action  of  the  legislature  by  its  commission 
fixing  the  rate  was  conclusive  upon  the  company  ;  that  it  could  not  be 
»heard  to  allege  that  the  rate  fixed  by  the  commission  was  unjust,  un- 
reasonable, and  not  a  fair  compensation,  but  that  the  rate  fixed  by  the 
commission  must  be  considered  by  the  court  as  the  reasonable  and  just 
compensation,  and  the  only  compensation  that  could  be  charged  by  the 
company,  and  thereupon  issued  a  peremptory  mandamus  compelling 
the  company  to  obey  it. 

Two  questions  were  presented  on  the  appeal. 

1.  Was  the  action  of  the  legislature,  in  setting  aside  the  company's 
rate  and  fixing  the  rate,  conclusive  upon  the  company  ? 

2.  Could  the  judicial  power  examine  and  inquire  into  the  reasona- 
bleness of  the  rate  fixed,  and  if  unreasonable  or  unjust,  set  it  aside  ? 

In  their  decision,  the  court,  speaking  by  Justice  Blatchford,  say  : 

"  In  the  present  case,  the  return  alleged  that  the  rate  of  charge  fixed  by  the  commission  was 
not  ejqual  or  reasonable,  and  the  Supreme  Court  held  that  the  statute  deprived  the  company  of 
the  right  to  show  that,  judicially,  the  question  of  the  reasonableness  of  a  rate  of  charge  for  trans- 
portation by  a  railroad  company,  involving,  as  it  does,  the  element  of  reasonableness,  both  as 
regards  the  company  and  as  regards  the  public,  is  eminently  a  question  for  judicial  investigation, 
requiring  due  process  of  law  for  its  determination.  If  the  company  is  deprived  of  the  power  of 
charging  reasonable  rates  for  the  use  of  its  property,  and  such  deprivation  takes  place  in  the 
absence  of  an  investigation  by  judicial  machinery,  it  is  deprived  of  the  lawful  use  of  its  property, 
and  thus,  in  substance  and  effect,  of  the  property  itself,  without  due  process  of  law,  and  in  viola- 
tion of  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  in  so  far  as  it  is  thus  deprived,  while  other  per- 
sons are  permitted  to  receive  reasonable  profits  upon  their  invested  capital,  the  company  is 
deprived  of  the  equal  protection  of  the  law." 

Justice  Miller,  in  his  concurring  opinion,  says : 

"  Neither  the  legislature  nor  such  commission,  acting  under  the  authority  of  the  legislature, 
can  establish  arbitrarily,  and  without  regard  to  justice  or  right,  a  tariff  of  rates  for  such  transporta- 
tion, which  is  so  unreasonable  as  to  practically  destroy  the  value  of  property  of  persons  engaged 
in  the  carrying  business,  on  the  one  hand,  nor  so  exhorbitant  and  extreme,  as  to  be  in  such  utter 
disregard  of  the  rights  of  the  public  for  the  use  of  such  transportation,  on  the  other.  In  either  of 
these  classes  of  cases,  there  is  an  ultimate  remedy,  by  the  parties  aggrieved,  in  the  courts,  for 
relief  against  such  oppressive  legislation,  and  especially  in  the  courts  of  the  United  States,  where 
the  tariff  of  rates  established  either  by  the  legislature,  or  by  the  commission,  is  such  as  to  deprive 
a  party  of  his  property  without  due  process  of  law." 

The  court  further  say  : 

"  The  issuing  of  the  peremptory  writ  of  mandamus  in  this  case  was  unlawful,  because  in 
violation  of  the  constitution  of  the  United  States." 

Mr.  Justice  Bradley,  who  dissented  from  the  opinion,  said  : 

"  I  cannot  agree  as  to  the  decision  of  the  court  in  this  case.  It  practically  overrulesMunn  vs. 
Illinois,  94  U.  S.,  and  the  several  railroad  cases  that  were  decided  at  the  same  time." 

It  must  therefore  be  regarded  that  the  Munn  case,  as  regards  fixing 
the  charges  of  railroads,  is  overruled,  and  that  the  power  of  the  gov- 
ernment in  regulating  these  charges  extends  only  to  regulations  which 
fix  and  establish  a  reasonable  compensation  for  the  service  rendered, 
and  that  whenever  the  regulations  are  challenged  as  improper  and 
unreasonable,  the  question  is  one  for  the  judiciary  to  decide,  and  not 
for  the  legislature. 

By  this  decision,  and  the  principles  therein  established,  all  interests 
of  the  public  in  property  clothed  with  a  public  use  are  completely  pro- 
tected and  subserved,  consistent  with  the  just  rights  of  the  owners. 
When  such  property  is  safely  and  conveniently  operated  for  the  use  of 
the  public,  and  for  a  reasonable  compensation,  no  interference,  regulation 
or  control  by  the  government  is  required  or  authorized  by  law.  The 
power  of  government  extends  only  to  the  securing  reasonable  charges 


REGULATION  OF  TRANSPORTATION.  '  63 

for  the  public,  and  safe  and  convenient  operation.  The  owner  of  such 
property  is  entitled  to  fix  its  own  rates,  within  the  bounds  of  reasona- 
bleness. This  right  is  an  attribute  of  his  ownership,  and  when  neces- 
sary to  secure  a  reasonable  return  on  his  investment,  he  has  the 
right  to  charge  on  all  commodities  such  sum  as  will  produce  the 
greatest  revenue,  consistent  with  the  largest  movement  of  commodities, 
until  the  revenue  received  is  sufficient  to  pay  his  operating  expenses, 
taxes  and  repairs,  and  a  fair  and  reasonable  interest  on  the  value  of  the 
property. 

Any  interference  with  such  rates  by  the  legislature,  within  these 
bounds,  is  unwarranted  and  unauthorized,  and  necessarily  an  invasion 
of  the  vested  rights  of  the  owner  in  the  property,  and  is  a  taking  of  the 
property  of  the  carrier  without  due  process  of  law — in  violation  of  the 
constitution  of  the  United  States. 

Thus  far  this  discussion  has  proceeded  upon  the  supposition  that 
the  right  of  the  government  to  regulate  or  control  railroad  transporta- 
tion depends  upon  the  special  character  of  railroads,  as  property  de- 
voted to  a  public  use;  that  is,  property  where  some  right  or  privilege 
is  conferred  upon  its  owners,  by  the  government  or  municipality,  which 
he  can  use  in  connection  with  his  property,  or  by  means  of  which  the 
use  of  his  property  is  rendered  more  valuable  to  him,  or  he  thereby 
enjoys  an  advantage  over  others.  In  all  of  such  cases,  whether  of  rail- 
roads or  other  properties,  the  compensation  to  be  received  by  the 
owner  of  the  property  so  benefited  becomes  a  legitimate  subject  of 
regulation  by  the  government,  to  the  extent  above  indicated. 

It  is  sometimes  insisted,  however,  that  this  power  of  regulation  and 
control  vested  in  the  government,  is  not  confined  to  this  class  of  prop- 
erty, and  for  the  reasons  here  stated,  but  that  it  extends  to  all  property, 
or  to  all  property  of  an  important  character  in  which  the  public  have 
an  interest,  and  that  government,  in  its  discretion,  may  regulate  and 
control  all  property  of  an  important  character  in  which  the  public  have 
an  interest. 

The  word  regulation,  as  used  in  this  connection,  means,  practically, 
the  right  and  power  of  the  government  to  fix  the  price  to  be  paid  for 
the  use  of  property,  and  for  all  services  rendered  in  connection  with  it. 
It  is  denied  that  the  government  is  possessed  of  any  such  right. 

I.  As  to  property  of  an  important  character  in  which  the  public 
have  an  interest ;  the  right  and  power  of  the  government  over  such 
property  is  not  different  from  its  general  right  as  to  all  property.  The 
public  have  an  interest  in  all  property,  more  in  some  kinds  of  property 
and  business  than  others.  This  public  interest  in  it,  however,  does  not 
subject  it  to  governmental  control.  For  instance,  the  public  of  Chicago 
are  much  more  interested  and  affected  by  the  property  and  business 
of  Marshall  Field's  store,  than  in  that  of  any  railroad  of  the  city.  Yet 
it  is  not  pretended  that  the  government  has  a  right  to  regulate,  control 
or  manage  his  business,  or  fix  his  prices.  His  business  and  property  is 
not  devoted  to  a  public  use,  and  therefore  he  has  the  absolute  right  to 
fix  his  own  prices,  and  make  his  own  regulations,  as  he  thinks  proper. 
The  same  is  true  of  all  other  property  and  business  of  the  country, 
whether  or  not  of  sufficient  importance  to  attract  public  interest  thereto. 
If  not  devoted  to  a  public  use,  the  government  has  no  right  in  its  man- 
agement or  control. 


64  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

2.  Again,  it  is  claimed  that  this  right  of  governmental  control 
belongs  to  the  government  in  virtue  of  its  police  power.  It  is  not 
denied  that  the  police  power  of  the  state  extends  to  all  property 
therein.  It  is  a  function  of  government,  and  under  it  the  state  is 
bound  to  protect  the  lives,  limbs,  health,  comfort  and  quiet  of  all  per- 
sons, and  all  property  in  the  state,  and  for  that  purpose  may  regulate 
its  use  to  the  extent  necessary.  The  maxim,  sic  titere  tuo  ut  aliimt 
non  loedas,  being  of  universal  application,  it  must,  of  course,  be  within 
the  range  of  legislative  action  to  define  the  mode  and  manner  in  which 
everyone  may  use  his  own  so  as  not  to  injure  others. 

The  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts,  in  Commmonwealth  vs.  Alger, 
held  that  every  holder  of  property,  however  absolute  and  unqualified 
may  be  his  title,  holds  it  under  the  implied  liability  that  his  use  of  it 
shall  not  be  injurious  to  the  equal  enjoyment  of  others  having  an  equal 
right  to  the  enjoyment  of  their  property,  nor  injurious  to  the  rights  of 
the  community. 

On  this  subject.  Chancellor  Kent,  speaking  of  the  inviolabilty  of 
property,  says : 

"  But  though  property  be  thus  protected,  it  is  still  to  be  understood  that  the  lawgiver  has  a 
right  to  prescribe  the  mode  and  manner  of  using  it,  so  far  as  may  be  necessary  to  prevent  the 
abuse  of  the  right  to  the  injury  or  annoyance  of  others,  or  of  the  public.  The  government  may, 
by  general  regulations,  interdict  such  uses  of  property  as  would  create  nuisances  and  become 
dangerous  to  the  lives  or  health,  or  peace  or  comfort  of  the  citizens.  Unwholesome  trades, 
slaughter  houses,  operations  offensive  to  the  senses,  the  deposit  of  powder,  the  application  of 
steam  power  to  propel  cars,  the  building  with  combustible  materials,  and  the  burial  of  the  dead, 
may  all  be  interdicted  by  law,  in  the  midst  of  dense  masses  of  population,  on  the  general  and 
rational  principle  that  every  person  ought  so  to  use  his  property  as  not  to  injure  his  neighbors,  and 
that  private  interests  must  be  made  subservient  to  the  general  mterests  of  the  community." 

This  sort  of  regulation  by  the  government  is  applicable  to  all  sorts 
of  property,  and  all  kinds  of  service,  and  pertains  no  more  to  the  regu- 
lation of  a  railroad,  or  its  management  and  control,  than  it  does  to  any 
other  property  or  business,  public  or  private.  There  is  no  warrant  in 
it  to  the  government  to  attempt  to  regulate  or  control  the  operation 
and  management  of  a  railroad,  or  any  other  property,  except  so  far  as 
the  proper  police  regulations  extend,  such  as  the  protection  of  the  lives, 
limbs,  health,  comfort  and  quiet  of  all  persons,  and  the  protection  of 
all  property,  and  other  proper  police  regulations.  It  is  no  authority 
whatever  to  the  government  to  exercise  the  power  of  fixing  the  rates 
of  compensation  of  property,  or  for  its  use,  or  for  services  in  connection 
therewith. 

In  R.  R.  Co.  vs.  Bowers,  4th  of  Houston,  506,  it  is  said: 

"  The  legislature  may  at  all  times  regulate  the  exercise  of  corporate  franchises  by  general 
laws,  passed  in  good  faith,  for  the  legitimate  ends  contemplated  by  t^^e  state  police  power;  that 
is,  for  the  peace,  good  order,  comfort  and  welfare  of  society ;  but  that  it  cannot,  under  color  of  such 
laws,  destroy  and  impair  the  franchise  itself,  nor  any  of  those  rights  or  powers  which  are  essential 
to  its  beneficial  exercise. 

Thus,  acts  regulating  the  mode  of  carrying  passengers  with  a  view  to  their  safety,  or  regulat- 
ing the  speed  of  trains  through  towns  and  cities,  or  requiring  certain  precautions  at  public  cross- 
ings, or  the  erection  of  fences,  are  proper  exercise  of  the  power  of  police  regulation.  *  *  *  * 
But,  quite  different  are  acts  which  directly  touch  the  constitution  of  the  corporation,  or  abridge  or 
modify  any  of  those  corporate  powers  which  are  essential  to  the  very  end  of  its  creation.  Such 
powers,  for  example,  as  to  the  right  to  operate  a  railroad  at  all,  the  right  to  take  toll  or  fare,  or  to 
adjust  their  tariffs,  these  are  not  police  regulations." 

And  Judge  Redfield,  upon  the  same  subject,  in  Thorpe  vs.  R.  R. 
Co.,  27  Vt.  140,  says  : 

"  It  must  be  conceded  that  all  which  goes  to  the  constitution  of  the  corporation  and  its  bene- 
ficial operation,  is  granted  by  the  legislature,  and  cannot  be  revoked,  either  directly  or  indirectly, 
without  a  violation  of  the  grant,  which  is  regarded  as  impairing  the  contract,  and  so  prohibited  by 
the  United  States  constitution.  *  *  *  *  The  privilege  of  operating  the  road,  and  taking  tolls 
or  freight  and  fare,  is  the  essential  franchise  conferred.  Any  act  essentially  paralyzing  this 
franchise,  or  destroying  the  profit  therefrom,  would  no  doubt  be  void." 


REGULATION  OF  TRANSPORTATION.  65 

Judge  Cooley,  in  his  Constitutional  Limitations,  507,  says : 

"  The  limit  to  the  exercise  of  the  police  power  in  these  cases  must  be  this:  The  regulations 
must  have  reference  to  the  comfort,  safety,  or  welfare  of  the  charter;  and  they  must  not,  under 
pretense  of  regulation,  take  from  the  corporation  any  of  the  essential  rights  and  privileges  which 
the  charter  confers.  In  short,  they  must  be  police  regulations  in  fact,  and  not  amendments  of  the 
charter  in  curtailment  of  the  corporate  franchises." 

It  is  the  right  of  the  government  in  all  these  matters  to  regulate 
persons  and  property,  with  a  view  to  the  protection  of  life  and  health, 
and  all  other  proper  police  matters  ;  but  this  power  extends  only  to 
police  regulations,  and  has  no  application  whatever  to  the  regulation, 
management  or  control  of  a  railroad  in  any  other  respect  *  *  *. 
A  regulation  that  a  railroad  should  be  operated  in  safety  and  conven- 
iently, would  doubtless  come  under  this  power,  but  not  the  power  to  fix 
its  compensation. 

In  the  matter  of  Jacobs,  98  N.  Y.,  the  Court  of  Appeals  say: 

"  Under  the  mere  guise  of  police  regulations,  personal  rights  and  private  property  cannot  be 
arbitrarily  invaded,  and  the  determination  of  the  legislature  is  not  final  and  conclusive.  If  it 
passes  an  act  ostensibly  for  the  public  health,  and  thereby  destroys  or  takes  away  the  property  of 
a  citizen,  and  interferes  with  his  personal  liberty,  then  it  is  for  the  courts  to  scrutinize  the  act, 
and  see  whether  it  really  relates  to,  and  is  convenient  and  appropriate  to  promote  the  public 
health.  It  matters  not  that  the  legislature  may,  in  the  title  to  the  act,  or  in  its  body,  declare  that 
it  is  intended  for  the  improvement  of  the  public  health.  Such  a  declaration  does  not  conclude  the 
courts,  and  they  must  yet  determine  the  fact  declared,  and  enforce  the  law. 

This  appears  to  be  a  correct  statement  of  the  powers  and  duty  of  the  court,  whenever  called 
upon  to  examine  and  inquire  into  a  pretended  police  regulation,  for  the  protection  of  the  public 
health  or  otherwise,  in  order  to  determine  whether  it  is  a  proper  exercise  of  legislation  under  that 
power,  or  is  in  conflict  with  the  constitution." 

The  police  power,  therefore,  is  not  an  authority  for  governmental 
regulation  or  control  of  railroads,  outside  of  legitimate  police  jurisdic- 
tion. It  furnishes  no  authority  for  fixing  their  rates  or  other  interfer- 
ence, except  as  applies  to  all  other  property. 

3.  It  is  also  claimed  that  all  the  powers  formerly  exercised  by  the 
British  parliament  are  now  possessed  by  our  legislature,  except  as 
prohibited  by  the  constitution  of  the  state  and  nation.  That  the 
British  parliament  exercised  the  right  to  regulate  and  control  not  only 
the  important  afifairs  of  its  citizens,  but  a  general  paternal  control  of 
all  their  affairs,  and  prescribe  the  rights,  liberties  and  privileges  which 
its  subjects  might  enjoy,  and  to  control  them  in  the  most  minute 
manner.  The  Munn  case  appears  to  have  proceeded  upon  the  prin- 
ciple that  this  paternal  system  of  government  was  in  existence  in  this 
country,  and  that  government  here  possessed  all  the  powers  formerly 
exercised  by  the  crown  and  parliament  of  Great  Britain,  except  as 
specially  restrained  by  our  constitution,  and  that  on  this  principle  the 
government  was  authorized  to  regulate  the  rates  and  charges  of  rail- 
road companies  and  exercise  its  supervising  control,  not  only  over  such 
companies,  but  all  other  property  and  business,  and  generally  to  exer- 
cise a  paternal  supervision  over  the  business  and  property  of  the  citizen. 

It  is  true  that  such  functions  and  powers  were  formerly  exercised 
by  the  British  parliament.  Several  hundred  years  ago  such  legislation 
was  the  rule  in  England.  In  those  days  paternal  government  prevailed 
there,  and  it  was  regarded  as  the  right  and  duty  of  parliament  to 
watch  over  and  protect  the  individual,  to  dictate  the  qualities  of  his 
food,  and  the  character  of  his  clothes,  his  hours  of  labor,  the  amount 
of  his  wages,  his  attendance  at  church,  and,  in  general,  care  for  him  in 
his  private  life. 

The  statutes  then  provided  how  long  one  should  work  as  an  appren- 
tice, how  many  there  should  be  in  proportion  to   journeymen,  where 


uiriyBEsiTr] 


66  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

they  should  hve,  under  what  circumstances  move  to  another  neighbor- 
hood, how  many  hours  they  should  labor,  and  for  how  long  a  time  a 
journeyman  should  be  employed,  and  that  wages  should  be  assessed  by 
the  year  by  the  justices  of  the  peace,  who  were  also  directed  to  settle 
all  disputes  between  master  and  apprentice.  We  have  to  look  to  the 
times  of  that  legislation  in  England  to  find  a  warrant  in  parliamentary 
practice  to  our  legislature  to  fix  the  compensation  of  railroads  or 
common  carriers. 

The  Munn  case  was  not  decided  on  the  ground  that  a  special 
franchise  or  privilege  had  been  conferred  upon  Munn  and  Scott  by 
government,  for  no  such  privilege  or  franchise  had  been  conferred. 
They  were  conducting  their  business  simply  as  citizens,  exercising  their 
natural  rights  with  no  special  privileges,  and  in  a  business  that  any  and 
every  other  citizen  might  engage  in  who  possessed  or  could  obtain  the 
requisite  means  for  the  purpose. 

This  Munn  case  originated  in  the  state  courts  of  Illinois,  and  was 
there  sustained  only  by  a  divided  court,  and  was  affirmed  by  the  U.  S. 
Supreme  Court  by  a  divided  opinion.  Although  it  has  been  frequently 
quoted  as  authority  by  the  state  courts,  and  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  it  has  in  several  of  its  most  important  particulars  been 
overruled  by  the  court  that  made  it. 

In  Wabash  vs.  Illinois,  i8  U.  S.  557,  it  was  overruled  so  far  as 
applicable  to  interstate  commerce,  and  in  the  case  of  the  Chicago, 
Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  railway  company  vs.  Minnesota,  in  the  134 
U.  S.,  it  was  again  overruled  in  its  most  important  provisions,  relating 
to  the  finality  of  the  action  of  the  legislature,  and  the  right  of  appeal 
to  the  courts  from  their  decision  ;  and  although  still  quoted  as  authority 
in  some  courts,  it  would  seem  that  a  very  small  part  of  the  original 
decision  remains  in  force  at  the  present  time. 

Those  mediaeval  days  of  legislation  in  the  British  parliament, 
even,  have  long  since  passed,  and  with  them  has  passed  the  whole 
doctrine  necessary  to  sustain  a  paternal  government.  The  declaration 
of  independence  was  the  voice  of  this  young  nation  for  freedom, 
declaring  that  it  would  not  be  subject  to  any  such  doctrine  or  practice, 
and  our  constitutions  based  upon  that  declaration  of  independence  with 
the  bill  of  rights  therein  contained,  has  in  terms  prohibited  the  exer- 
cise of  such  powers  by  our  legislatures. 

The  kind  of  legislation  invoked  to  sustain  the  decision  in  Munn  vs. 
Illinois,  and  which  was  its  controlling  principle,  has  long  since  been 
condemned  in  England,  and  under  our  constitutional  governments 
never  had  a  real  or  practical  existence  in  this  country,  prior  to  that 
decision.  The  regulation  or  control  of  railroads  on  the  grounds  therein 
stated  is  not  authorized,  and  cannot  be  sustained  upon  principle. 

The  attempt  to  sustain  governmental  regulation  and  control  of 
railroads  under  the  police  power  or  the  paternal  policy  of  government 
cannot  be  sustained ;  it  is  in  direct  conflict  with  the  constitution  which 
provides  that  no  man  shall  be  deprived  of  his  life,  liberty  or  property 
without  due  process  of  law. 

Under  our  form  of  constitutional  government  it  has  ever  been  held 
to  be  the  unquestionable  right  of  every  freeman  to  have  a  perfect  and 
entire  property  in  his  goods  and  estate,     i  Kent's  Com.  613. 


REGULATION  OF  TRANSPORTATION.  67 

As  such  freeman  and  owner  of  his  estate,  he  has  the  absolute  right 
to  determine  whether  or  not  he  will  bestow  his  labor  or  furnish  his 
property  or  its  use  for  any  other  party,  and  the  price  at  which  such 
services  or  use  shall  be  furnished,  except  where  some  special  privilege 
has  been  conferred  upon  him  by  law  in  respect  to  such  property.  Any 
violation  of  this  right  is  an  infringement  of  the  privileges  and  immuni- 
ties of  the  citizen,  a  menace  to  his  freedom  and  independence,  as  well 
as  a  denial  of  his  right  to  enjoy  his  property.  The  right  to  control  and 
fix  the  price  for  the  use  of  property  under  our  system  of  government 
inheres  in  the  owner,  and  cannot  be  taken  from  him  without  destroying 
all  benefits  arising  from  such  ownership,  and  it  is  his  right  and 
privilege  to  manage  it  so  as  to  yield  to  him  the  greatest  profit. 

The  value  of  property  to  the  owner  consists  in  his  right  to  the  use 
thereof,  and  it  is  the  owner's  right  to  get  the  largest  amount  possible 
for  such  use.  As  was  said  by  Lord  Ellenborough  in  Aldnut  vs.  Inglis, 
12  East.  527,  in  speaking  of  the  right  of  an  owner  to  charge  an 
unreasonable  amount  for  the  use  of  his  warehouse  : 

"There  is  no  doubt  that  the  general  principle  is  favored,  both  in  law  and  justice,  that  every 
man  may  fix  what  price  he  pleases  on  his  own  property  or  the  use  of  it." 

Under  our  government  and  constitution,  every  man  has  the  right  to 
decide  for  himself  whether  he  will  labor  or  abstain  from  it,  and  fix  the  price 
for  which  he  will  bestow  his  services.  So,  with  his  property,  he  has  the 
absolute  right  to  fix  its  price  or  the  price  of  its  use  by  any  other  party, 
and  in  asserting  and  maintaining  these  rights  he  is  protected  by  the  laws 
and  constitution  of  his  country. 

It  matters  not  whether  the  amount  demanded  for  the  use  of  prop- 
erty is  reasonable  or  unreasonable.  It  is  the  right  of  the  owner  to  fix  the 
price  at  which  he  will  allow  another  to  use  it. 

This  is  true  of  all  property  of  a  strictly  private  nature,  but  it  is  modi- 
fied, as  hereinbefore  suggested,  as  to  all  property  attached  to  a  public 
use.  Such  property,  although  owned  exclusively  by  the  individual  or 
the  corporation,  is  clothed  with  a  public  use,  and,  in  consequence  thereof, 
the  right  of  the  owner  to  regulate,  manage  and  cohtrol  it  is  modified 
by  the  right  of  the  government  to  regulate  it  in  the  interest  of  the 
public,  and  of  the  owner,  and  this  power  of  government  authorizes  it 
to  make  such  rules  and  regulations  as  will  secure  to  the  public  its  use  for 
a  compensation  reasonable  to  the  public  and  to  the  owner  of  the  prop- 
erty. Under  this  authority,  the  legislature  has  no  power  to  require 
that  the  price  for  the  use  of  such  property  shall  be  fixed  either  above 
or  below  a  reasonable  compensation. 

Were  the  legislature  to  fix  the  rate  of  compensation  to  be  paid  for 
the  use  of  the  property,  it  could  not  fix  it  above  what  is  reasonable,  for 
Lord  Coke  says :  "  The  king  cannot  grant  an  unreasonable  toll,"  and 
certainly  the  legislature  could  not  fix,  or  authorize  the  company  to  fix, 
an  unreasonbly  high  compensation  for  property  devoted  to  a  public  use. 
To  do  so  would  be  to  take  the  property  of  the  shipper  and  give  it  to 
the  carrier  in  violation  of  the  constitution,  which  provides  that  no  per- 
son shall  be  deprived  of  his  property  without  due  process  of  law,  and 
certainly  the  establishment  of  an  unreasonably  high  rate,  either  by  the 
company  or  the  legislature,  could  not  be  regarded  as  due  process  of 
law.  The  same  principle  requires  that  the  government  shall  not  estab- 
lish, or  compel  the  company  to  establish,  an  unreasonably  low  rate,  for 


68  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

such  service  as  this  would  be  taking  the  property  of  the  carrier  and 
giving  it  to  the  shipper  in  violation  of  the  same  provision  of  the  con- 
stitution. 

It  may  therefore  be  assumed,  as  established  by  our  highest  courts,  that 
legislative  or  state  control  of  railroads  in  this  country  is  established  to  the 
extent  that  the  state,  through  its  legislature  or  otherwise,  is  entitled  to 
require  that  all  railroads  shall  be  operated  by  the  owners  for  a  reasonable 
compensation,  and  that  the  state  may  make  all  suitable  and  proper  rules 
and  regulations  to  require  the  company  to  fix  such  rate.  That  the 
company  is  the  owner,  and  as  such  is  entitled  to  manage  the  property 
and  fix  the  rates  of  charges  subject  to  these  rules  and  regulations,  and 
such  compensation  must  be  a  reasonable  remuneration  to  the  owner  for 
the  use  of  the  property,  as  well  as  just  and  reasonable  to  the  public,  and 
that  in  case  the  rules  and  regulations  in  that  respect  fixed  by  govern- 
ment are  challenged  as  unreasonable  or  unjust,  the  ultimate  remedy 
for  the  party  aggrieved  is  by  an  appeal  to  the  courts.  In  other  words, 
that  the  question  of  reasonableness  or  of  reasonable  compensation  in 
such  case  is  for  the  courts,  and  not  the  legislature,  for  final  determi- 
nation. 

The  practical  effect  of  governmental  regulation  of  transportation  is 
very  difficult  to  estimate  correctly  at  this  time.  There  is  no  general 
regulation  of  transportation  in  this  country,  aside  from  the  common  law, 
with  its  amendments  in  different  states  now  in  force,  except  so  far  as 
relates  to  railroads.  There  is  no  statute  regulating  or  fixing  the 
charges  of  common  carriers  as  such,  and  the  charges  of  common 
carriers,  except  by  railroad,  have  never  been  limited  or  regulated  in  this 
country  to  the  knowledge  of  the  writer.  In  discussions  upon  this  sub- 
ject, it  has  frequently  been  suggested  that  Congress  or  the  state  legis- 
latures should  regulate  the  business  of  common  carriers,  by  fixing  their 
compensation.  But  I  am  not  aware  of  any  power  conferred  upon  the 
government,  either  state  or  national,  for  that  purpose,  except  so  far  as 
they  are  using  grants  and  franchises  or  other  privileges  and  advantages 
furnished  by  the  government. 

The  common  law  as  amended  governs  and  regulates  the  business  of 
common  carriers,  but  not  their  charges  or  compensation.  I  know  of 
no  statutes  attempting  to  regulate  or  fix  their  charges  ;  and  with  the 
views  above  expressed,  the  power  of  government  which  could  ulti- 
mately be  exercised  for  that  purpose,  is  not  apparent,  except  as 
applied  to  railroads  and  other  carriers  similarly  situated,  who  are  ex- 
ercising a  privilege  or  franchise  from  government.  It  is  difficult  to 
understand  how  government  can  regulate  or  control  the  charges  of 
carriers  on  our  lakes  and  rivers,  or  the  high  seas,  and  a  decision  of  any 
of  our  higher  courts  sustaining  the  validity  of  such  a  statute  would  be 
a  novelty  in  jurisprudence. 

The  efforts  for  governmental  control  of  railroads  in  respect  to  their 
charges,  has  not  been  a  success  generally.  The  granger  legislation  of 
1873  ^J^d  1874  was  allowed  to  remain  on  the  statute  books  only  some 
two  years ;  and  during  that  time  was  the  constant  source  of  litigation 
and  ill  feeling  between  the  companies  and  the  states  where  it  existed, 
and  all  laws  upon  that  subject  were  repealed  by  the  voluntary  action  of 
the  people.  Some  restrictions  still  remain  as  to  rates  in  a  few  of  the 
states,  but  the  charges  of  the  companies  have  in  most  instances  been 


REGULATION  OF  TRANSPORTATION.  69 

reduced  by  competition  and  the  laws  of  trade  below  the  maximum  rates 
as  they  now  appear  in  such  statutes. 

The  State  of  Minnesota  in  1887  passed  laws  authorizing  the 
appointment  of  a  commission,  with  power  to  make  such  regulations  and 
fix  the  charges  of  railroads  in  certairi  cases,  and  on  certain  conditions. 
The  commission  attempted  to  execute  this  law,  which  resulted  in  two 
suits,  one,  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  railway  company 
against  Minnesota,  and  the  other  the  Minneapolis  &  Eastern  railroad 
company  against  said  state,  which  were  taken  to  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,  in  both  of  which  cases  the  court  held  the  law  un- 
constitutional. No  attempts  were  afterwards  made  to  enforce  it,  and  it 
has  recently  been  repealed. 

The  State  of  Iowa  in  1888  passed  laws  authorizing  its  commission 
to  fix  a  schedule  of  rates,  and  a  classification  for  railroads  in  that  state, 
as  to  their  local  business,  and  the  railroads  are  to  some  extent  operat- 
ing under  it,  but  not  willingly,  and  whether  the  public  of  the  state  of 
Iowa  is  benefited  thereby,  the  future  must  determine.  No  other  state 
is  actively  attempting  the  enforcement  of  any  such  law. 

Governmental  control  of  railroads  in  some  other  respects  in  prevent- 
ing unjust  discriminations  and  privileges  has  been  much  more  success- 
ful. This  position  of  the  statute  was  only  a  re-enactment  of  the  com- 
mon law  upon  the  subject  and  has  been  beneficial  in  its  effect  when 
confined  to  unjust  discriminations.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  general 
authority  reserved  to  the  government  over  railroads  to  regulate  and 
control  them  to  the  extent  that  they  shall  be  operated  for  a  reasonable 
compensation  is  of  great  benefit  to  the  public,  and  a  wise  provision  of 
government  when   limited  as  the  court  has  now  fixed  its  bounds. 

The  efforts  to  enforce  these  provisions  have  often  been  unwise, 
and  operated  to  the  injury,  not  only  of  the  railroads,  but  of  the  com- 
munity in  which  they  were  made.  A  wise  administration  of  these 
reserved  powers  would  not  injure  the  companies,  and  in  some  cases 
would  prove  beneficial  to  the  community,  but  any  attempt  on  the  part 
of  government  to  fix  the  compensation  to  be  paid  for  the  service  of 
railroads  is  likely  to  prove  a  failure  in  the  future  as  it  has  in  the  past. 
In  the  present  condition  of  the  country  there  is  certainly  no  occasion 
for  any  such  action.  The  laws  of  trade  and  the  competition  legitimately 
existing  between  railroads  are  far  better  safeguards  to  the  people  than 
any  positive  rules  that  could  be  adopted  by  the  government,  and  are 
steadily  operating  to  reduce  such  rates.  The  reduction  of  railroad 
rates  has  continued  steadily  since  the  decision  in  the  Munn  case,  which 
attempted  to  establish  the  validity  of  the  granger  laws  of  the  North- 
western states,  without  any  statute  requiring  it. 

In  order  to  show  the  effect  of  the  laws  of  trade  and  competition 
upon  this  subject  I  quote  from  the  record  of  one  of  the  principal  roads 
affected  by  the  legislation  of  1874. 

It  appears  that  in  1865,  the  average  rate  charged  by  that  road  per 
ton  per  mile  was  4. 11  cents  per  ton.  In  1874,  the  average  rate  per  ton 
per  mile  war  2.38  cents  per  ton  per  mile,  during  which  period  there 
was  no  statute  upon  the  subject.  The  granger  legislation  was  in  force 
during  the  years  1874  and  1875.  The  average  rate  per  ton  per  mile 
for  those  years  was  2.1  cents  per  ton  per  mile.  Since  then  there  has 
been    no    restriction  upon    the    rates   of  that  company,  and  in  1890, 


70  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

the  average  rate  per  ton  per  mile  charged  was  9  mills  and  tVjt  less 
than  one  cent,  and  since  then  has  been  about  one  cent  per  ton  per 
mile. 

From  this  statement  it  would  appear  that  no  legislation  was  neces- 
sary to  reduce  the  rates  of  transportation.  The  general  laws  of  trade 
and  competition  have  proved  much  more  effective  for  that  purpose. 

The  Munn  case  arose  under  a  statute  of  Illinois,  which  fixed  the 
rate  for  elevating  wheat  in  the  city  of  Chicago  at  two  cents  per  bushel. 
The  price  now,  as  fixed  by  competition  and  the  laws  of  trade  is  only  }( 
of  a  cent  per  bushel.  An  examination  of  the  statistics  connected  with 
this  matter  throughout  the  country  will  show  similar  reductions  in 
charges  resulting  wholly  from  the  laws  of  trade  and  competition 
without  government  aid. 

These  results  from  the  natural  course  of  business  are  much  more 
satisfactory  and  beneficial  to  the  public  than  any  benefits  that  could  be 
expected  from  the  governmental  regulation  upon  the  subject. 


THE  STATUTORY  REGULATION  OF  TRANSPORTATION  AND 
ITS  RESULTS. 


ALFRED    G.    SAFFORD,    LAW    DEPARTMENT,    INTERSTATE    COMMERCE 

COMMISSION. 


The  right  of  the  supreme  power  in  a  state  to  regulate  railroads  and 
other  instrumentalities  of  commerce  is  no  longer  an  open  question.  It 
is  no  longer  considered  a  doubtful  exercise  of  the  legislative  authority 
to  prescribe  the  rules  by  which  commerce  is  to  be  governed  ;  not  only 
is  this  proposition  universally  recognized,  but  such  regulation  is 
generally  considered  to  be  a  positive  duty  which  the  government,  in 
a  wise  adminstration  of  its  affairs,  has  no  right  to  neglect. 

Railways  are  public  highways  ;  they  are  instruments  of  commerce  ; 
the  public  have  an  interest  in  their  use  ;  they  possess  and  operate 
franchises  of  a  public  character  ;  the  grants  to  them  are  in  derogation 
of  common  right  in  the  nature  of  exclusive  privileges  ;  more  than  this, 
they  are  governmental  agencies  affecting  the  public  welfare,  and  for 
any  one  and  all  of  these  accumulated  reasons  they  are,  on  the  ground 
of  public  interest  and  necessity,  subject  to  legislative  control. 

The  construction  and  operation  of  railways  is  not  merely  a  private 
speculation  on  the  part  of  those  individuals  who  may  have  invested 
their  money  in  their  creation.  They  exist  and  are  operated  only  as 
forming  a  part  of  the  government  itself.  Natural  persons,  who  are  not 
strictly  officers  of  government,  prescribe  the  rules  governing  the  details 
of  railroad  management,  but  in  so  doing  they  are  only  engaged  in  the 
administration  of  one  of  the  functions  of  government.  This  funda- 
mental doctrine,  underlying  the  whole  subject  of  railroad  construction 
and  operation,  has  been  stated  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 


RESUL  TS  OF  ST  A  TUTOR  V  REGULA  TION.  7  I 

States  with  such   succinctness  and   clearness  as  to  warrant  a  reproduc- 
tion of  the  language. 

In  Olcott  vs.  Supervisors,  16  Wallace  694-5,  the  court  say  : 

"  That  railroads,  though  constructed  by  private  corporations  and  owned  by  them,  are  public 
highways  has  been  the  doctrine  of  nearly  all  the  courts  ever  since  such  conveniences  for  passage 
and  transportation  have  had  any  existence,  ....  whether  the  use  of  a  railroad  is  a  public  or  a 
private  one  depends  in  no  measure  upon  the  question  of  who  constructed  it,  or  who  owns  it.  It 
has  never  been  considered  a  matter  of  any  importance  that  the  road  was  built  by  the  agency  of  a 
private  corporation.  No  matter  who  owns  it,  or  who  is  the  ^^^nX.,  the  ftmctiofi  performed  is 
that  of  the  state.     Though  the  ownership  \s  private  the  use  \s  public^ 

And  in  Railroad  Company  vs.  Maryland,  21  Wallace  471,  the 
doctrine  is  again  asserted  in  the  following  language : 

"  This  unlimited  right  of  the  state  to  charge,  or  authorize  others  to  charge,  toll,  freight,  or  fare 
for  transportation  on  its  roads,  canals  and  railroads,  arises  from  the  simple  fact  that  they  are  its 
own  works,  or  constructed  under  its  authority — it  gives  them  being." 

It  thus  being  the  duty  of  government  to  administer  this  important 
function  of  its  organization,  namely,  the  providing  of  improved  public 
highways  which  its  inhabitants  may  use  as  a  means  of  facilitating 
commerce,  and  it  having  been  determined,  so  far  in  the  history  of  our 
own  country  at  least,  that  the  administration  ought  not  be  confided  to 
government  officials,  and  that  the  best  management  requires  private 
ownership  and  unofficial  direction,  and  having  delegated  a  portion  of 
its  sovereignty  to  the  administration  of  a  corporation  created  by  it  for 
that  purpose,  it  is  beyond  dispute  that  the  delegated  authority  should 
be  so  restrained  and  guided  by  discreet  legislation  as  to  ensure  to  the 
whole  people  the  very  best  possible  results.  Therefore  I  insist  that  a 
government  not  only  may,  but  it  should,  provide  for  a  statutory  regula- 
tion of  railroads,  understanding  that  the  kind  of  regulation  mentioned 
in  the  subject  was  not  intended  to  refer  to  those  statutes  which  states 
under  the  "  police  power,"  so-called,  may  enact  and  which  extend  to  all 
regulations  affecting  the  health,  good  order,  morals,  peace  and  safety 
of  society.  The  "regulation  "  here  to  be  considered  is  of  another  sort, 
and  refers  to  statutes  which  have  for  their  object  the  placing  of  the 
facilities  of  transportation  within  the  reach  of  all,  affording  to  each 
person  an  equal  right  to  the  advantages  of  transportation,  by  ensuring 
the  imposition  of  just,  reasonable,  equal,  non-discriminatory  and  stable 
charges. 

Such  charges  should  be  "just  and  reasonable''  That  is  to  say, 
they  should  be  neither  too  high  nor  too  low.  A  railroad  is  often  a 
monopoly.  It  controls  the  only  avenues  of  traffic.  Left  to  itself,  by 
the  imposition  of  too  high  a  tariff,  it  could  demand  more  than  a  fair 
rate  for  the  business,  and  the  community  it  serves  be  powerless  to  resist 
its  merciless  demands ;  or  by  making  rates  too  low,  it  might  throttle  a 
weaker  rival  and  strangle  the  life  out  of  a  competitor  deriving  its  right 
to  participate  in  the  business  from  the  same  governmental  source. 
Therefore  rates  must  be  just  and  reasonable,  not  only  to  the  persons 
who  employ  it  as  an  instrumentality  of  commerce,  but  also  as  to  all 
other  persons  and  carriers,  whose  right  to  exist  and  do  business  free 
from  unreasonable  and  unjustifiable  attacks  ought  to  be  protected  by 
the  same  laws  which  protect,  or  are  designed  to  protect,  the  actual 
patron. 

Rates  should  also  be  ''equal"  to  each  person  requiring  a  like  and 
contemporaneous  service.  It  would  seem  to  be  unnecessary,  at  first 
sight,  to  make  a  special  provision,  in  laws  of  this  character,  that  rates 


72  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

should  possess  this  element  of  equality,  added  to  the  other  provision 
that  they  should  be  just  and  reasonable.  But  the  necessity  arises 
because  some  of  the  courts,  by  a  process  of  reasoning  which  is  as 
mysterious  as  it  is  unconvincing,  have  held  that  a  carrier  may  charge 
a  greater  sum  to  one  person  than  to  another  for  a  like  and  contempor- 
aneous service,  without  making  an  "unjust"  discrimination  in  the  sense 
that  the  word  "  unjust  "  is  used  in  such  statutes. 

Rates  should  also  be  "  non-discri?ni7tatory.''  Of  course  if  there  was 
a  provision  in  such  statutes  for  just  and  reasonable  rates,  and  a  require- 
ment that  they  should  be  equal  for  a  substantially  similar  service,  there 
would  be  no  need  of  a  regulation  against  discrimination  as  to  shippers 
of  the  same  articles  between  the  same  points.  But  such  regulations 
are  necessary  in  order  to  protect  different  localities  and  different 
businesses.  Each  community  is  entitled  to  all  the  benefits  of  its  geo- 
graphical location,  and  laws  in  regulation  of  commerce  ought  to 
provide  for  the  protection  of  those  natural  and  other  advantages  which 
are  peculiar  to  each  situation. 

Again,  rates  ought  to  be  stable.  They  should  not  be  subject  to  sud- 
den changes  or  temporary  fluctuations.  A  change  in  rate  charge  should 
not  go  into  operation  until  each  patron  shall  have  an  opportunity  to 
take  advantage  of  it,  and  shape  his  particular  business  to  the  change 
of  circumstances. 

I  have  thus  gone  over,  in  a  general  way,  the  underlying  principles 
which,  it  is  agreed  on  all  sides,  should  be  protected  and  put  into  practi- 
cal operation  by  laws  regulating  railroad  traffic.  The  question  there- 
upon arises  as  to  what  method  of  legislation  is  the  best  to  bring  about 
the  desired  result.  Practical  experience  has  determined  that  it  is  quite 
useless  to  enact  a  statute  which  begins  and  ends  with  a  declaration 
that  rates  shall  be  characterized  by  any  or  all  of  the  above  specified 
qualifications,  and  leave  the  practical  enforcement  of  such  regulation  to 
the  ordinary  machinery  of  the  government.  The  statute  books  of  the 
world  show  that  legislators  have  oftentimes  tried  this  experiment,  but 
such  laws  have  always  been  honored  more  by  the  breach  than  by  the 
observance. 

The  ordinary  machinery  of  the  government,  its  executive  and 
judicial  branches,  are  not  suited  to  a  practical  administration  of  such 
laws.  The  courts  are  overwhelmed  in  these  days  with  the  thousand 
and  one  subjects  of  litigation,  and  their  processes  are  necessarily  too 
much  delayed  to  apply  the  remedy  of  the  laws  in  matters  of  this  kind 
in  such  a  way  as  to  prevent  the  evil  or  advance  the  remedy.  The  won- 
derful development  of  railroad  facilities  during  the  past  generation, 
which  have  become  so  general  as  to  enter  into  almost  every  transaction 
of  business  or  social  life,  has  created  a  situation  which  may  well  demand 
of  government  a  separate  and  distinct  department,  to  the  administration 
of  which  may  wisely  be  confided  the  carrying  into  effect  of  general 
principles  and  distributing  the  charge  for  transportation  services,  which 
is  in  a  certain  measure  a  tax  upon  the  people,  with  exact  impartiality. 

In  some  countries  railroads  are  constructed  and  operated  by  the 
state,  but  such  ownership  and  control  is  only  adapted,  if  at  all,  to 
peculiar  conditions,  and  in  this  country  where  the  government  is  formed 
upon  the  confederation  of  a  multiplicity  of  sovereignties,  such  owner- 
ship and  control  would  not  be  compatible  with  the  best  service.     The 


RESUL  TS  OF  ST  A  TUTOR  V  REG  ULA  TION.  7  3 

magnitude  of  the  operation  of  all  the  railroads  of  this  country,  if  aggre- 
gated into  single  ownership,  would  be  beyond  the  power  of  the  best 
administrative  capacity.  Rivalry  and  competition  of  the  several  lines, 
which  in  and  of  itself  operates  so  largely  to  regulate  and  control  the  rea- 
sonableness of  charges,  would  at  once  lose  its  controling  influence. 
Every  rate  between  every  place  would  have  to  be  a  matter  of  indepen- 
dent action.  Such  ownership  and  control  is  not  at  the  present  time 
advocated  in  this  country  by  any  careful  student  of  the  situation,  and 
exists  only  in  the  imagination  of  discontented  theorists. 

But  almost  fifty  years  ago  a  plan  was  suggested  —  the  statutory 
regulation  of  railroads  by  boards  of  commissioners  —  and  since  that 
time  such  regulation  has  been  practiced,  with  more  or  less  success,  by 
various  countries. 

Not  always  have  such  boards  been  successful.  The  difficulty  in 
this  country  of  statutory  regulation  by  the  states,  in  view  of  the  control- 
ing force  of  the  commercial  clause  in  the  constitution  and  the  neces- 
sarily limited  scope  of  such  acts  when  put  in  force  by  a  state,  has 
materially  lessened  the  salutary  effect  of  such  statutes ;  besides  legis- 
lators have  quite  uniformly  fallen  into  the  error  of  making  such  laws 
inflexible  in  those  particulars  wherein  they  should  have  been  elastic, 
such  as  the  positive  regulation  of  details,  and  weak  in  those  particulars 
wherein  they  should  have  been  strong,  such  as  the  powers  given  to  the 
commissioners.  Too  often  states  have  been  disgraced  by  statutes 
nominally  in  regulation  of  railroads,  but  really  a  scheme  of  legalized 
petit  larceny,  such  as  the  recent  act  of  a  state  that  all  railroads  should 
furnish  all  the  members  of  the  state  legislature  with  free  passes. 

Such  laws  only  serve  to  bring  the  law-  making  power  into  contempt. 
There  have  been  many  dismal  failures  in  statutory  regulation  of  rail- 
roads, and  these  failures  have  generally  resulted  from  the  ignoring  of 
two  elementary  principles  which  ought  to  enter  into  every  statute  law, 
namely,  simplicity  and  strength.  Laws  should  be  simple,  easy  to  be 
understood  and  convenient  of  application,  and  should  also  have 
machinery  of  sufficient  strength  to  put  their  provisions  into  practical 
operation. 

Therefore  it  is  that  laws  upon  this  subject  should  enact  that  rates 
and  charges  should  be  put  into  effect  in  accordance  with  general  prin- 
ciples, broad  and  comprehensive  enough  to  meet  every  situation,  and 
as  regulation  by  commission  seems  to  be  the  only  practical  method  of 
securing  proper  results,  the  underlying  necessity  of  such  regulation  is 
to  confine  all  matters  of  management  and  detail  to  the  discretion  of  the 
board  of  commissioners  ;  it  goes  without  saying  that  that  discretion  ought 
not  to  be  hampered  or  controlled  by  the  attempted  regulation  of  partic- 
ular details  and  management  in  the  law  itself.  It  is  therefore  a  matter 
of  astonishment  and  concern  to  find  in  all  laws  authorizing  this  sort  of 
regulation  sections  prohibitive  of  certain  details  of  management  from 
which  the  discretion  of  the  board  is  withdrawn. 

This  defect  is  well  illustrated  by  the  act  of  February,  1887,  com- 
monly known  as  the  Interstate  Commerce  law.  Section  one  provides 
that  rates  shall  be  "just  and  reasonable."  Section  two,  that  they 
shall  be  "equal."  Section  three,  that  they  shall  be  "non-discrim- 
inatory." Section  six,  that  they  shall  be  "stable  and  uniform."  These 
sections  embody  all  the  elements  which  are  necessary  to  the  impartial 


74  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

administration  of  railroad  properties,  but  on  account  of  the  dif- 
ferent circumstances  and  conditions  surrounding  the  question  of 
railroad  transportation,  the  details  of  applying  these  elementary  prin- 
ciples must  necessarily  vary.  The  legislators  cannot  foresee  and  cannot 
provide  for  exact  regulation  of  all  these  details,  but  they  can  provide  a 
board  of  commissioners  to  whose  controlling  discretion  such  matters 
may  be  confided,  and  it  is  quite  necessary  that  in  such  a  statute,  ample 
plenary  power  should  be  given  to  the  administrative  board. 

Referring  again  to  the  interstate  commerce  law,  the  third  section, 
which  prohibits  discriminations,  was  copied  from  the  English  railway 
laws,  where  it  had  received  a  definite  construction,  and  the  English 
courts  had  construed  this  section  which  was  incorporated  into  our  law 
as  being  prohibitive  of  the  greater  charge  for  the  shorter  haul.  (Budd 
vs.  London  &  N.  W.  R.  Co.,  36  L.  T.  N.  S.  802.  Denaby  Main 
Colliery  Co.  vs.  Manchester  S.  &  L.  R.  Co.,  3  N.  &  M,  426). 

By  repeated  decisions  of  our  Supreme  Court,  where  a  statute  of  our 
country  is  copied  from  an  English  statute,  and  the  statute  there  had 
received  a  judicial  construction  before  its  passage  here,  that  judicial 
construction  is  held  to  be  incorporated  into  our  legislation. 

In  this  view  of  the  case,  of  what  practical  use  is  the  celebrated 
fourth,  the  "  long  and  short  haul,"  section  of  the  law,  which  was 
intended  as  a  prohibition  of  such  charges,  unless,  in  a  special  case,  the 
commission  might  relieve  the  carrier  from  this  otherwise  absolute 
control  ?  It  is  an  instance  of  unnecessary  legislation,  and  harmful, 
because  the  singling  out  of  a  single  instance  of  discrimination,  and 
prohibiting  it,  implies  that  the  preceding  third  section  would  fail  to 
reach  all  cases  of  discrimination,  so  that,  instead  of  strengthening  the 
prohibitions  of  the  statute,  it  withdraws  from  it  a  portion  of  its  vitality. 

So  too,  the  fifth  section  of  the  interstate  law,  which  prohibits  all  of  a 
certain  class  of  agreements  between  carriers,  is  another  weak  attempt 
to  regulate  details.  Such  a  sweeping  prohibition  has  no  place  in  the 
statute,  unless  every  agreement  of  the  kind  prohibited  was  opposed  to 
the  best  service. 

I  do  not  believe  that  the  practice,  so  common  in  this  country  at  one 
time,  of  charging  a  greater  rate  for  the  shorter  haul  should  be  generally 
permitted,  but  there  are  occasional  instances,  as  has  been  very  frequently 
pointed  out  by  writers  upon  this  subject  and  by  practically  dis- 
interested persons  identified  with  the  management  of  railroad  property, 
where  such  rates  should  be  permitted.  I  do  not  believe  that,  as  a 
general  rule,  contracts  looking  to  the  destruction  of  competition  should 
be  permitted,  but  it  is  a  matter  of  common  experience  that  there  are 
occasional  instances  when  the  existence  of  the  weaker  lines  and  the 
best  service  depends  upon  peace  rather  than  war.  I  would  not  take 
away  from  the  statute  a  single  vital  word  which  would  impair  the 
carrying  into  practical  effect  of  the  general  principles  I  have  specified, 
but  I  firmly  believe  that  the  present  law  would  be  more  practical  and 
more  effective  if  it  contained  only  the  provisions  of  the  first,  second, 
third  and  sixth  sections,  together  with  the  other  administrative  features 
which  seem  to  have  been  wisely  enacted  in  aid  thereof.  I  do  not  think 
that  sufficient  authority  and  control  have  been  given  to  the  board  of 
commissioners  authorized  by  it.  An  ideal  law,  in  my  estimation,  would 
be  one  fashioned  after  or  perhaps  identical  with  the  present  law  as  to 


RESUL  TS  OF  ST  A  TUTOR  Y  REGULA  TION.  7  5 

all  principles  which,  from  their  nature,  must  enter  into  every  transac- 
tion which  would  be  silent  as  to  prohibition  in  special  cases,  and 
which  would  give  to  the  commission  an  authority  so  plenary  that 
through  their  discretion  they  could  put  all  of  the  necessary  funda- 
mental principles  into  immediate  practice. 

The  present  act  to  regulate  commerce  was  practically  the  first 
attempt  on  the  part  of  Congress  to  attempt  the  regulation  of  interstate 
carriage.  It  would  have  been  surprising  if  it  had  embraced  all 
necessary  subjects  and  had  applied  to  each  an  unfailing  remedy,  and 
the  legislative  department  deserves  the  highest  commendation  for 
having  taken  so  long  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  and  the  executive 
department  has  reason  to  be  congratulated  upon  the  wise  selection  of 
the  various  commissioners  to  whom  the  law  has  confided  its  adminis- 
tration. I  only  contend  that  to  give  the  best  possible  direction  to 
the  duty  of  legislative  control  which  the  situation  exacts  from  the 
supreme  power  in  the  state,  the  discretion  of  the  commission  should  be 
unhampered  and  uncontrolled  by  special  statutory  prohibitions,  and 
their  determinations  should  be  given  a  character  and  dignity  cor- 
responding to  the  character  and  dignity  of  the  decisions  of  other  legis- 
lative courts. 

The  result  of  my  argument  on  this  subject  is,  that  amidst  such  an 
infinite  diversity  of  circumstances  and  conditions  railroads  ought  not 
to  be  hampered  by  prohibition  or  enactments  regulating  the  details 
according  to  the  momentary  caprice  or  fancy  of  the  law-making  power, 
but  the  law  should  leave  those  details  and  their  management  to  the  wise 
discretion  of  the  persons  it  designates  as  administrative  officers,  giving 
to  such  persons  paramount  and  immediate  authority,  and  so  organizing 
the  administrative  board  as  to  bring  it  into  close  relationship  to  the 
subject,  and  designed  upon  a  plan  which  should  be  comprehensive 
and  readily  accessible  to  the  public.  It  should  be  as  free  and  as  easy 
to  reach  as  are  the  courts  to  whom  are  confided  the  administration  of 
other  departments  of  the  law. 

Such  a  law  would  necessarily  require  at  least  one  commissioner  in 
each  judicial  district  of  the  circuit  courts  of  the  United  States, 
machinery  for  speedy  hearing  and  determination,  and  an  appeal  to  a 
revisory  board  at  the  seat  of  government.  The  limits  of  endurable  dis- 
cussion do  not  permit  me  to  enter  into  all  the  details  of  such  an 
organization  of  commerce  courts,  while  the  question  of  just  what  would 
be  for  the  best  is  quite  complex  and  difficult.  I  do  not  consider  the 
difficulties  to  be  insurmountable.  Having  the  organization  and  practice 
of  the  courts  for  a  century  or  more  as  an  example  a  satisfactory 
system  could  doubtless  be  evolved. 

Regulation,  to  give  the  best  results,  should  be  certain  and  thorough. 
If  it  should  be  made  an  integral  part  of  our  judiciary  system,  I  have 
no  doubt  expenses  of  management  would  be  reduced  to  a  minimum,  the 
tax  of  the  cost  of  transportation  would  be  levied  with  even-handed 
impartiality,  ruinous  competition  would  be  unknown,  and  the  railroads 
of  our  country  would  become,  up  to  the  full  measure  of  their  capacity, 
factors  in  a  new  era  of  commercial  activity  and  consequent  national 
prosperity. 


76  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 


ECONOMIC  LAWS  GOVERNING  RAILWAY  OPERATIONS. 


MARSHALL    M.    KIRKMAN,  SECOND    VICE    PRESIDENT    CHICAGO    & 

NORTH-WESTERN    RAILWAY    COMPANY. 

[Mr.  Kirkman  is  also  known  as  the  author  of  many  standard  works  on  railway  administration]. 


The  office  of  a  railroad  is  to  facilitate  travel  and  to  bring  producer 
and  consumer  together.  This  is  accomplished  by  the  use  of  such 
means  as  the  arts  of  man  have  placed  at  its  disposal,  supplemented  by 
rates  that  come  within  the  means  of  the  consumer,  and  yet  afford  a 
margin  of  profit  to  producer  and  carrier. 

The  appliances  of  railroads  every  one  may  study.  They  are  such 
as  the  traffic  requires.  But  the  principles  upon  which  rates  are  based 
are  not  so  well  understood.  A  correct  and  general  understanding  of 
them  is,  however,  necessary  to  the  prevention  of  grave  misunderstand- 
ings between  public  and  carrier.  Freedom  of  trade,  ability  of  con- 
sumers to  buy  what  they  need,  inducement  to  the  producer  to  create, 
are  all  dependent  upon  a  proper  application  of  the  rate  principle  by 
railroads.  While  no  other  subject  connected  with  trade  at  the  present 
time  is  of  equal  importance,  it  is  not  generally  understood.  The  prin- 
ciples governing  it  are,  however,  very  simple.  They  may  be  briefly 
summarized  as  follows  : 

Rates  must  be  uniform  wherever  conditions  are  alike. 

They  must  be  just  and  reasonable. 

But  in  determining  what  is  reasonable,  all  the  problems  of  a  traffic 
must  be  considered. 

A  carrier's  ability  to  perform  a  particular  act  embraces  all  his  acts. 

He  can  handle  designated  articles  only  so  long  as  he  handles  other 
articles. 

Particular  rates  cannot,  therefore,  be  considered  apart. 

Rates  must  be  founded  on  economic  laws. 

They  are  based  on  what  the  article  will  bear,  and  are  not,  conse- 
quently, equally  productive.  Further  than  this,  particular  interests 
cannot  be  conserved  at  the  expense  of  others. 

Rates  must  be  such  as  to  stimulate  trade. 

They  must  also  be  generally  remunerative. 

It  results  from  the  application  of  these  laws  that  traffic  that  is  not 
productive  dies. 

Competition  is  a  potential  factor  in  determining  rates,  and  in  the 
case  of  railroads,  is  general. 

Thus,  the  facility  and  cheapness  with  which  wheat  may  be  moved 
from  India  to  Liverpool  affects  the  rate  on  wheat  in  every  quarter  of 
the  globe.  It  also  affects  the  rate  on  substitutes  for  wheat,  such  as  rye, 
barley,  and  so  on. 

In  so  far  as  this  is  the  case,  competition   among   railways    is   not, 


ECONOMIC  LAWS  GOVERNING  OPERATIONS.  77 

therefore,  dependent  upon  the  presence  of  neighboring  lines  or  merely 
local  influences. 

A  parallel  line,  or  multiplicity  of  local  competitive  interests,  while 
valuable,  would  not  be  enough  to  maintain  equitable  conditions.  They 
must  be  supplemented  by  others  of  a  general  nature,  embracing  the 
markets  of  the  world  and  the  diversified  carriage  of  mankind  by  land 
and  water. 

Richness  of  soil,  facilities  of  production,  price  of  labor,  and  the  rate 
for  carriage  from  point  of  production  to  the  place  of  consumption, 
influence  the  charges  of  carriers  in  the  most  distant  quarters  of  the 
globe. 

It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  sources  of  competition  among 
carriers  are  as  numerous  as  the  divergent  interests  of  trade.  Because' 
of  this,  they  are  self-regulative.  Errors  of  judgment  and  sins  of 
omission  and  commission  are  selfcorrective. 

Competition  is  not  the  "life"  of  trade,  but  its  balance  wheel;  its 
regulator.    Trade  cannot  be  vigorous  or  healthy  where  it  does  not  exist. 

Supply  and  demand  are  the  "life"  of  trade. 

Love  of  gain  and  the  necessities  of  mankind  will  keep  trade  alive 
where  there  is  no  competition. 

Competition  sweeps  away,  or  reduces  to  their  proper  proportions, 
enterprises  that  labor  under  disadvantages,  or  cannot  produce  as 
cheaply  as  others. 

It  is  in  no  part  of  the  duty  of  carriers,  any  more  than  private  individ- 
uals, to  keep  alive  unproductive  industries  or  those  requiring  constant 
succor.  To  do  so  would  be  to  make  one  portion  of  the  community 
bear,  permanently,  the  burdens  of  another. 

Wherever  competition  prevails,  the  fittest  survive.  Men  are  stimu- 
lated to  continued  effort.  It  develops  inventive  genius,  economical 
methods,  keeps  alive  interests,  leads  men  to  personal  sacrifices. 

Competition,  like  every  other  blessing,  has  its  excesses.  It  is  not 
an  unmixed  good.  Its  advantages,  however,  greatly  overbalance  its 
disadvantages. 

Its  hardships  are  mollified  by  the  devices  of  men.  In  every  coun- 
try save  the  United  States,  they  are  mitigated,  in  the  case  of  railroads, 
by  the  use  of  pools  and  similar  devices.^ 

Local  competition  at  common  points  enforces  special  rates.  It 
supplements  the  general  and  universal  competition  railroads  labor 
under,  and  therefore,  adds  to  its  acuteness.  The  privilege  of  discrimi- 
nating in  such  cases  is  a  necessary  and  inherent  one.  But  when  such 
discrimination  cannot  be  regulated  by  concurrent  interests,  the  traffic 
must  be  abandoned  or  made  the  source  of  harassment  to  both  the 
carrier  and  the  community. 

Railways  in  the  United  States  have  suffered  greatly  from  local 
competitive  effort.  While  encouraged  to  compete  with  each  other, 
they  are  denied  the  right  to  mollify  such  strife. 

Local  competition  impossible  of  regulation  injures  more  than  it 
benefits. 

Wherever  railway  construction  is  free,  the  owners  of  railways 
should  be  permitted  to  regulate  local  competition.     Laws  prohibiting  it 

I  If  merchants  were  denied  the  right  to  regulate  their  competition,  asjailroads  are  in  the 
United  States,  they  would  quickly  be  ruined  and  commerce  destroyed. 


78  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

are  destructive.  The  device  of  railways  for  preventing  undue  compe- 
tition in  such  cases  is  pooling.  Where  it  is  prohibited,  consolidation  of 
rival  interests  will  follow  if  the  adoption  of  some  other  and  equally- 
effective  device  is  impossible.^ 

Competition  between  local  carriers  is  beneficial  in  many  ways  aside 
from  reduced  rates.  It  insures  better  facilities,  superior  warehouses, 
yards  and  grounds,  adequate  equipment,  and  abundant  provision  for  the 
convenience,  safety  and  comfort  of  the  traveling  public. 

Local  competition  that  results  in  abnormal  rates  is  to  be  deplored. 

It  is  only  the  natural  markets  of  the  world,  conjointly  with  carriers, 
that  afford  self-regulative  effort.  They  are  based  on  supply  and 
demand,  at  once  universal,  salutary  and  wise.  The  laws  that  govern 
them  are  so  conservative  and  far  reaching  as  to  prevent  injustice  upon 
the  part  of  local  carriers. 

The  rates  of  railroads,  being  regulated  by  competitive  carriers  and 
markets,  do  not  invite  extraneous  attention.  The  objection  to  laws 
that  interfere  with  the  economic  action  of  trade  is  that  they  must  be 
so  liberal  as  to  be  inoperative,  or  if  agrarian  in  nature,  destroy  the 
enterprise  they  are  designed  to  regulate,  and  at  the  same  time  cripple 
all  industries  dependent  upon  it.  Thus,  laws  limiting  the  income  of 
properties  place  the  maximum  earnings  at  so  high  a  point  that  they 
are  inoperative,  or  at  so  low  a  figure  that  they  are  evaded  or  the  ser- 
vice degraded,  while  capital  carefully  avoids  further  investment  in 
industries  thus  crippled. 

In  the  practical  operation  of  railroads  such  rates  are  made  as  the 
traffic  will  bear.  This  rule  is  observed  in  detail.  It  is  probable  that 
there  is  more  or  less  business  upon  which  there  is  little  or  no  profit ; 
perhaps  momentarily  a  loss.  If  on  the  whole  the  revenue  thus  arrived 
at  affords  a  fair  return  on  the  capital  invested,  the  property  prospers ; 
if  on  the  other  hand  the  revenue  is  not  sufficient,  it  languishes  —  is 
thrown  into  the  hands  of  a  receiver,  and  thus  a  readjustment  of  fixed 
charges  is  made  to  conform  to  the  earnings  capacity  of  the  road.  The 
burden  of  this  readjustment  does  not  fall  alone  on  the  owners  of  the 
railroad ;  all  other  securities  feel  the  effect  of  the  loss  of  credit,  and 
private  industries  everywhere  suffer  by  reason  of  the  distress  created. 
So  that  in  disaster  as  in  prosperity,  solidarity  of  trade  is  observed, 
and  in  crippling  one  industry  all  other  industries  suffer.  Because  of 
this  law  it  is  a  misfortune  to  a  community  to  have  a  railroad  constructed 
that  will  not  prove  productive.  An  unprofitable  railroad  casts  a  shadow 
over  every  surrounding  industry.  Private  ownership  and  control  of  rail- 
roads, being  governed  by  the  economic  conditions  of  trade,  must  con- 
form in  every  respect  to  its  laws.  Safety  of  property  and  prospect  of 
gain  enforce  this  condition. 

Government  ownership  or  control  is  desirable  only  so  far  as  it  can 
conform  thereto,  only  so  far  as  it  is  free  to  adapt  itself  from  hour  to 
hour   to   the    ever   changing   vicissitudes   of   trade.     It    must  possess 

I  In  considering  the  question  of  pools,  it  should  be  remembered  that  they  have  never  been 
adopted  in  any  country  except  with  reluctance  by  railway  owners  and  manageis,  and  only  after 
their  necessity  and  value  became  apparent.  No  railway  owner  or  manag:er  will  willingly  cir- 
cumscribe his  action  by  agreement  with  competitors,  except  when  imperatively  necessary.  This 
was  the  experience  was  the  experience  with  pools  in  the  United  States  during  the  short  period  in 
which  they  were  permitted.  They  were  never  entered  into  by  railroads  except  with  reluctance, 
and  only  when  their  presence  became  necessary  in  order  to  protect  the  general  interests  of  the 
communtity. 


ECONOMIC  LAWS  GOVERNING  OPERATIONS.  79 

both  the  knowledge  and  disposition  to  meet  these  requirements. 
Automatic  action,  such  as  that  attendant  upon  the  enforcement  of  taxes 
and  the  collection  of  custom  dues,  is  not-  sufficient.  Nor  can  it  shield 
itself  behind  formulas  or  adroitly  conceived  methods.  It  must  be  both 
creative  and  adaptive.  Moreover,  in  the  conduct  of  business  only  the 
wants  of  the  latter  must  be  considered.  It  must  not  be  hampered  by 
questions  of  public  policy  or  administrative  needs.  This  unselfishness 
and  adaptability  and  freedom  we  know  to  be  impossible, to  govern- 
ments, and  in  so  far  as  this  is  so,  their  management  fails.  Govern- 
ments, however,  have  a  necessary  and  beneficent  office  to  fulfill.  That 
of  a  supervisory  force  ;  the  office  of  enquirer  and  judge ;  the  duty  of 
allaying  unjust  irritation ;  the  correction  of  misapprehensions ;  the 
settlement  of  disputes ;  the  correction  of  acts  of  injustice  and  oppres- 
sion   whether  originating  with  the  public  or  the  carrier. 

Superiority  of  private  control  over  government  right  is  due  to  the 
superior  incentive  that  animates  the  former  ;  to  the  desire  of  gain  and 
the  fear  of  loss.  The  care  and  productiveness  of  property  require  that 
it  should  be  constantly  adapted  to  ever  varying  needs  ;  that  its  man- 
agement should  be  far-seeing,  prudential  and  wise.  Government  con- 
trol is  lacking  in  immediate  concern.  It  is  mechanical  where  it  should 
be  initiative  ;  indifferent  where  it  should  have  the  fear  of  loss  before  its 
eyes ;  extravagant  where  it  should  be  economical. 

Superiority  of  private  management  over  that  of  government,  it  is 
proper  to  say,  is  not  due  to  any  natural  superiority  of  the  employes  of 
the  former  over  the  latter,  but  to  the  fact  that  the  former  are  impreg- 
nated with  the  spirit  of  the  owner,  are  subject  to  his  commanding  pres- 
ence and  exacting  methods. 

Mankind  is  interested  in  having  railroads  operated  as  cheaply  as 
possible,  because  traffic  that  does  not  pay  the  cost  of  operation  cannot 
be  carried  on. 

High  rates  restrict  production  and  heighten  the  cost  to  the  con- 
suriter. 

Their  effect  is,  therefore,  to  restrict  the  volume  and  profitableness  of 
business.  They  also  increase  the  price  of  food  and  clothing,  lower  the 
wages  of  labor  and  lessen  demand  for  the  latter. 

In  so  far  as  government  control  of  railroads  is  more  expensive  than 
private  management,  and  it  is  always  more  expensive,  all  these  mani- 
fold evils  are  increased.  They  are  felt  alike  by  the  farmer,  manufac- 
turer, merchant  and  laborer.' 

The  science  of  transportation  is  said  to  be  the  contribution  of 
America  to  political  economy.  It  was  developed  under  a  policy  of  gov-' 
ernmental  abstention.  Its  further  elucidation  is  dependent  upon  a  like 
policy.  Its  wisdom  has  been  demonstrated  in  widespread  productive- 
ness ;  in  growth  of  population  and  wealth  ;  in  unprecedented  increase 
of  agriculture,  manufacture  and  mining.  There  can  be  no  question  of 
its  wisdom,  just  as  there  can  be  no  surer  evidence  of  the  efficiency  of 
carriers  than  in  the  constant  and  increasing  demand  for  their  service ; 
in  the  dis])osition  and  ability  of  the  people  to  travel,  and  in  their  need 
for  carriers  in  other  directions. 


I  The  general  principles  here  laid  down  for  the  government  of  railroads  were  long  observed  in 
the  United  States.  Under  them  its  railroad  system  became  the  greatest  in  the  world  in  magni- 
tude, in  effectiveness  of  operation  and  cheapness  of  rates. 


8o  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

The  railroads  of  the  United  States  and  England  are  the  most  effi- 
cient in  the  world.  This  is  due  to  the  presence  of  the  owner  ;  to  his 
genius  and  authority  ;  to  his  watchfulness  and  supervisory  care.  The 
value  of  such  service  to  those  who  live  in  the  realm  of  theory,  or  have 
no  practical  acquaintance  with  business,  cannot  be  understood.  With 
them  mechanical  effort  and  formulas  have  the  effect  of  vital  forces. 
They  believe  government  employes  to  be  as  capable  as  those  who  work 
under  the  immediate  eye  of  a  jealous  and  exacting  owner,  that  the  same 
genius  lodges  in  the  clerk  that  is  to  be  found  in  the  principal.^ 

The  principles  and  methods  that  apply  generally  to  manufacturers 
apply  to  carriers.  They  are  to  be  measured  by  normal  standards  only. 
In  time  of  peace  carriers  should  be  assured  protection  and  impartial 
treatment.  In  time  of  war  other  and  greater  interests  may  intervene  ; 
such  occasions  are  exceptional  and  in  nowise  affect  the  general  princi- 
ples, that  owners  shall  be  left  free  to  construct,  to  own  and  to  manage. 
Mutuality  of  interests  will  prevent  the  privilege  being  abused.^ 

The  operations  of  carriers  are  impartial  and  equitable.  Unjust 
discrimination  is  impossible,  because  retro-active.  Instances  of  injus- 
tice will  occur,  but  will  be  isolated,  infrequent  and  temporary.  Such 
acts,  if  not  self-corrective,  would  destroy  trade. 

Wherever  an  injustice  is  known  to  exist  it  should  be  brought  to  the 
attention  of  the  government  and  corrected.  But  a  drag  should  not  be 
put  on  the  commerce  of  the  world  because  of  a  special  or  petty  prac- 
tice. 

The  dream  of  carriers  is  a  stable  service.  For  railroads  the  aim  is 
trains  that  are  safe,  ample,  rapid  and  remunerative.  These  objects  are 
impossible  if  a  service  is  not  remunerative,  and  no  service  can  be 
remunerative  if  a  community  is  not  prosperous.  The  affairs  of  the  two 
are,  therefore,  mutual  and  reciprocal. 

The  interests  in  which  railroads  participate  are  not  one-sided. 
Every  one  must  prosper  —  the  producer,  middleman,  carrier  and  con- 
sumer. America  has  been  the  Utopia  of  railroads.  Its  low  rates,  great 
commercial  prosperity  and  colossal  development,  the  result  of  govern- 
ment abstention,  teach  the  lesson  that  the  less  such  properties  are  inter- 
fered with  by  governments  the  better.  Intervention  through  commis- 
sioners may  be  valuable,  but  when  made  to  assume  the  initiative,  when 


I  Thus  a  writer  says  :  "  It  is  curious  how  men  still  argue  that  man,  in  running  a  railroad,  if 
left  alone,  will  act  according  to  natural  law,  but  that  man,  in  running  a  government,  is  some  way, 
freed  from  the  operation  of  that  natural  law,  and  can  work  out  all  the  viciousness  that  is  in  him." 
— Sidney  Herbert.  Observation  teaches  that  the  prosperity  of  the  man  who  runs  a  railroad  is 
bound  up  in  the  prosperity  of  the  community,  while  the  man  who  runs  a  government  is  responsi- 
ble, only,  in  a  devious  way,  to  a  shadowy  principal —  the  people.  That  there  are  exceptions  to 
this  rule,  due  to  the  presence  of  exceptionally  able  and  conscientious  officials,  does  not  render  it  the 
less  true. 

2 The  interstate  commerce  commission  of  the  United  States  bears  general  testimony  to  this 
fact.     It  says : 

"  It  is  freely  conceded  that  many  practices  of  the  carriers  and  many  of  the  principles  adopted 
by  them  in  the  establishment  of  tariffs  and  classifications  which  seem  on  first  blush  to  be  purely 
arbitrary  and  unjust,  are  found  on  examination  to  be  perfectly  just,  and  founded  on  the  strongest 
reasons  of  public  expediency  and  commercial  necessity.  It  is  indeed  almost  wonderful,  consider- 
ing the  arbitrary  powers  which  the  carriers  (so  far  as  mere  common-law  restraints  are  concerned) 
possess  in  the  matter  of  rate-making,  that  the  actual  exercise  of  arbitrary  and  opf^-essive  action 
is  so  comparatively  rare.  The  explanation  is  that,  while  the  restraints  of  the  common  law  count 
for  little  or  nothing,  the  operation  of  economic  and  commercial  principles  is  constantly  exerting  a 
pressure  which  cannot  be  resisted,  in  the  actual  as  well  as  the  relative  adjustment  of  tariff  charges." 
— Suggestions  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  in  reply  to  Arguments  on  Senate  Bill  892, 
March  16,  1892. 


ECONOMIC  LAWS  GOVERNING  OPERATIONS.  8 1 

made  to  interfere  with  natural  laws,  when  it  assumes  to  supplant  private 
endeavor  and  interest,  it  is  surcharged  with  harm. 

The  dream  of  governmental  regulation  of  railroads  is  a  return  to 
the  practices  of  mediaeval  times,  when  governors  fixed  the  price  of  bread 
and  meat.  The  loss  of  confidence,  falling  off  in  production,  and 
enhancement  of  prices  and  general  hardship  that  followed  then,  will 
follow  today  from  a  like  cause. 

The  advantages  of  active  governmental  interference  are  fictitious  and 
uncertain.  Such  intervention  is  unnecessary.  Railroads  are  self-gov- 
erned, because  the  commercial  interests  they  serve  demand  responsive 
effort.  Railway  rates  may  be  too  low  ;  they  cannot  be  too  high  If  too 
high,  they  destroy  the  business  they  seek  to  foster.  Like  the  railways 
of  which  they  are  the  barometer,  they  must  conform  to  actual  needs  of 
trade.  Great  or  widespread  comme;-cial  prosperity  is  impossible  where 
they  do  not  do  this.  They  are  the  connecting  link  leading  the  pro- 
ducer to  the  consumer,  and  when  economically  applied,  as  they  must 
be  in  the  actual  affairs  of  business,  stimulate  and  protect  every  possible 
interest  of  the  community. 


II. 

RAILWAY    MANAGEMENT   AND 
OPERATION. 


THE     EFFECT     OF     COMPETITION     UPON     RAILWAY     CON- 
STRUCTION   AND    OPERATION. 


ALDACE    F.    WALKER,    CHAIRMAN   JOINT    COMMITTEE     OF     THE      TRUNK 
LINES    AND    CENTRAL    TRAFFIC    ASSOCIATION. 


In  tracing  the  results  of  competition  in  human  affairs  a  broad  dis- 
tinction is  obvious,  without  noting  which  no  generalization  can  be 
safely  made.  A  difference  clearly  exists  between  competition  which  is 
healthy  and  competition  which  is  excessive.  Healthy  competition  pro- 
duces results  which  may  be  called  primary  or  immediate  ;  excessive 
competition  induces  another  series  of  results  of  a  radically  different 
nature,  which  may  be  termed  secondary  or  ultimate.  The  primary  and 
the  secondary  effects  of  competition  are  radically  diverse. 

Competition,  in  its  earlier  stages,  develops  energy,  stimulates 
industry,  excites  invention,  increases  production,  promotes  distribu- 
tion, reduces  cost,  controls  rapacity  and  overthrows  monopoly.  Its 
first  fruits  are  a  blessing  to  the  world.  It  gives  the  laboring  man  free- 
dom to  seek  employment  where  he  will,  and  it  throws  open  every 
avenue  of  enterprise  to  the  capitalist  and  the  entrepreneur.  It  drives 
the  white  wings  of  commerce  and  turns  the  grimy  wheels  of  trade.  It 
revives  the  worn-out  soil  of  effete  countries  and  irrigates  the  desserts 
of  new  continents.  In  this  aspect  it  is  properly  called  the  life  of 
trade,  for  it  replaces  torpor  by  activity  and  routine  by  enterprise. 

But  another  set  of  results  arises  when  competition  is  pushed  too 
far.  Its  ultimate  effects  may  be  as  disastrous  as  its  primary  effects  are 
beneficial.  In  its  essential  essence  competition  is  strife.  Strife  is 
undue  measure  is  warfare  ;  and  war  is  the  parent  of  misery  and  death. 
Excessive  competition  even  destroys  the  very  agencies  through  which 
it  is  conducted  ;  and  with  their  extinction  competition  itself  necessarily 
disappears. 

If  a  concrete  example  is  required  to  make  my  meaning  plain  a  very 
simple  illustration  must  suffice.  Suppose  a  rural  village  with  a  country 
inn.  The  landlord  is  of  course  a  lover  of  horses  and  keeps  two  or 
three  which  he  loans  to  his  neighbors   for  hire.     Presently  a  stranger 


84  WORLUS  RAILWAY  COMMEkCE  CONGRESS. 

enters  the  town  and  opens  a  livery  across  the  way.  Competition 
begins.  The  hotel  keeper  wakes  up  to  the  possibilities  of  improvement. 
He  buys  a  better  horse, — probably  two  or  three.  He  adds  new  wagons, 
carriages,  and  perhaps  a  hearse.  He  conforms  his  prices  to  those 
announced  by  his  rival.  Business  is  stimulated.  The  town  is  better 
served,  and  the  profits  of  both  are  satisfactory. 

To  this  point  the  results  of  competition  are  advantageous  to  every 
interest.  But  presently  a  smoldering  feeling  of  hostility,  or  a  desire 
to  do  even  better  than  hitherto,  induces  one  one  or  the  other  to  inject 
into  their  healthy  competition  an  element  of  bitterness,  and  the  prices 
are  cut  once  more.  Retaliation  follows,  and  the  earnings  of  both 
become  less  than  the  expenses  of  the  business.  A  warfare  has  begun 
which  is  no  longer  an  advantage  to  either,  but  a  loss  to  both.  The 
strife  becomes  personal  and  ruinous.  The  community  enjoys  the 
scene,  and  perceives  only  new  benefits  arising  from  what  it  calls  free 
and  unrestricted  competition.  But  the  end  is  inevitable ;  one  or  the 
other  contestants  must  give  way.  Whether  it  be  a  withdrawal  from 
business,  a  sheriff's  sale,  a  private  deal  by  which  one  buys  out  the 
other,  or  possibly  a  partnership,  the  result  is  the  same.  Competition 
is  terminated.  It  has  destroyed  itself  and  wholly  disappears.  The 
natural  result  of  excessive  competition  is  the  ruin  of  one  of  the  com- 
petitors—  possibly  of  both;  unless  this  result  can  be  warded  off,  the 
primary  benefits  of  competition  are  lost  and  the  secondary  result  is  a 
reversion  to  the  conditions  which  existed  before  the  competition  began. 

This  picture  may  be  reproduced  in  every  branch  of  industry. 
Miners,  manufacturers,  carriers,  merchants, —  all  alike  for  a  time  find 
prosperity  in  the  activity  which  competition  brings,  but  if  they  com- 
pete to  the  end  it  is  the  survival  of  the  fittest ;  meaning  always  the 
fittest  for  the  contest ;  not  necessarily  the  fittest  to  survive.  Competi- 
tion is  a  useful  servant,  but  a  hard  master.  In  this  it  does  not  differ 
from  other  industrial  agencies  which  are  of  value  when  in  harness  and 
which  work  harm  when  uncontrolled.  Steam  is  gathered  in  boilers  of 
enormous  strength  and  does  its  work  through  cylinders  of  steel  ;  if  the 
boiler  explodes,  or  the  cylinder  head  blows  out,  the  engine  is  a  wreck. 
Unless  electricity  is  insulated,  it  spreads  destruction.  The  same  is  true 
of  moral  forces.  Liberty  without  the  safeguards  of  education  presently 
becomes  license.  Law  uncontrolled  by  constitutional  principles  or  by 
codes  will  pass  by  easy  stages  into  despotism.  Every  good  thing  is 
converted  into  a  power  for  evil  by  excess.  Too  much  eating  is  glut- 
tony. Too  much  drinking  is  intemperance.  Too  much  religious  zeal 
is  fanaticism.  Exercise  of  the  body  and  even  of  the  mind,  if  unduly 
prolonged,  will  induce  physical  or  mental  prostration. 

So  of  competition.  Its  primary  effect  is  that  of  blessing.  Its 
secondary  result  is  only  bane.  Until  the  public  learns  that  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  unhealthy  competition,  it  will  fail  to  treat  this  subject 
with  either  logic  or  good  sense.  Free  and  unrestricted  competition  is 
a  crude  and  a  dangerous  war  cry.  It  refuses  to  recognize  actual  con- 
ditions. It  observes  only  immediate  results,  and  it  ignores  ultimate 
effects  which  are  as  natural  as  the  rising  and  setting  of  the  sun,  or  as 
the  procession  of  the  seasons. 

We  cannot  close  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  in  spite  of  all  the  clamor 
of  the  present  day   for  free  and  unrestricted    competition  there  was 


THE  EFFECT  OF  COMPETITION.  85 

never  a  time  when  so  much  was  done  as  now  in  the  way  of  curbing  and 
repressing  its  extravagances.  Laws  against  industrial  combinations 
are  passed  only  to  be  evaded  and  forgotten.  Agreements  upon  prices, 
upon  business  methods,  upon  the  amount  of  production,  upon  territory 
of  sale,  are  found  in  every  industry.  They  have  increased  with  the 
natural  increase,  following  the  necessities  of  the  age.  The  most 
stringent  agreements  are  found  in  organizations  of  laboring  men,  who 
not  only  go  to  the  full  limits  of  their  legal  rights,  but  frequently  over- 
step them  in  their  effort  to  exclude  free  and  unrestricted  competition 
from  their  various  vocations.  Fire  insurance  could  not  be  carried  on 
except  by  strict  rules  against  the  cutting  of  premium  rates.  News- 
papers agree  upon  their  advertising  rates  and  their  wages  scale. 
Brokers  fix  their  commissions  by  agreement,  and  maintain  them  by 
concerted  action.  The  rules  of  the  board  of  trade  are  enforced  with 
severity.  In  every  line  of  business  methods  of  this  nature  are  adopted 
and  they  are  necessary  in  order  to  maintain  the  advantages  of  competi- 
tion to  the  public  as  a  whole.  To  seek  to  prevent  them  by  law  is  as 
futile  as  it  was  for  King  Canute  to  legislate  against  the  tides.  Unless 
undue  and  unreasonable  competition  can  in  some  manner  be  kept  in 
check,  the  weaker  agencies  will  surely  be  forced  to  leave  the  field  to 
the  stronger  or  will  be  absorbed.  In  a  word,  the  secondary  result  of 
competition  is  monopoly.  Excessive  competition  logically  can  have 
no  other  end. 

In  order  that  the  secondary  results  of  competition  may  be  avoided 
while  its  primary  results  are  preserved,  there  has  lately  been  developed 
a  spirit  of  cooperation  between  competitors ;  a  phrase  used  by  the 
president  of  the  World's  Congress  in  his  opening  address,  and  which 
he  employed  to  donate  mutual  arrangements  taking  various  forms,  but 
all  directed  to  the  avoidance  of  unhealthy  competition.  This  coopera- 
tion does  not,  as  is  often  alleged,  suppress  competition ;  on  the 
contrary  it  preserves  it.  Until  recently  the  logical  result  of  competi- 
tion was  either  an  actual  combination  of  the  competitors,  or  the 
extinction  of  the  weaker.  Both  these  results  are  now  commonly  fore- 
stalled by  cooperative  agreements,  under  which  the  independent 
competitive  agencies  are  not  extinguished ;  these  agreements  may 
touch  only  a  single  point  of  the  strife,  or  may  have  broader  issues  ; 
they  are  always  less  than  actual  consolidation :  they  are  subject  to 
condemnation  only  when  they  result  in  extinction  ;  and  in  that  event 
they  either  fall  of  their  own  weight  or  stimulate  the  appearance  of  new 
agencies  to  oppose  them. 

There  is  no  novelty  in  these  thoughts,  which  nevertheless  need 
statement  and  restatement,  lest  their  truth  be  forgotten.  Listen  for  a 
moment  to  the  words  of  thoughtful  jurists  and  publicists,  who  have 
conscientiously  looked  the  question  in  the  face.  I  quote  briefly,  giving 
the  substance  and  usually  the  very  language  of  the  opinions  expressed. 

The  Court  of  Appeals  of  the  State  of  New  York  :  "  I  do  not  think 
that  competition  is  invariably  a  public  benefaction ;  for  it  may  be 
carried  to  such  a  degree  as  to  become  a  public  evil." 

The  Supreme  Court  of  Wisconsin  :  "  I  believe  universal  observation 
will  attest  that  for  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  competition  in  trade 
has  caused  more  individual  disasters,  if  not  more  public  injury  than 
the  want  of  competition." 


86  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

The  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts :  "  Instead  of  an  injury  to  the 
public  the  community  may  receive  a  benefit  from  such  procedure  (refer- 
ring to  an  agreement  for  the  regulation  of  competition)  as  it  will  go 
to  prevent  the  trades  being  overdone  and  so  being  profitable  to  none." 

The  Supreme  Court  of  Missouri :  "A  combination  in  a  trade  which 
has  become  ruinous  from  competition  to  raise  prices  to  a  fair  and 
reasonable  point,  is  not  invalid." 

Vice-Chancellor  Wood  of  England  :  "  It  is  a  mistaken  notion  that 
the  public  is  benefited  by  pitting  two  railway  companies  against  each 
other  until  one  is  ruined,  the  result  being  at  last  to  raise  the  fares  to  the 
highest  possible  standard." 

Lord  Bramwell  of  England  ;  approved  by  the  House  of  Lords :  "  It 
does  seem  strange  that  to  enforce  '  freedom  '  of  trade  the  law  should 
punish  those  who  make  a  perfectly  honest  agreement  with  the  belief 
that  it  is  fairly  required  for  their  protection." 

Judge  Cooley  of  Michigan :  "  It  will  appear  from  an  examination 
that  in  all  of  "  the  cases  on  the  subject  of  contracts  in  restraint  of  trade 
"  the  legality  of  bargaining  to  limit  competition,  when  it  is  kept  within 
the  bounds  of  reasonable  protection,  is  either  assumed  or  expressly 
affirmed." 

Professor  Hadley  of  Yale  College :  "  We  can  no  longer  hold  that 
free  competition  is  an  automatic  regulator  of  prices  and  that  combina- 
tion is  economically  wrong." 

Beach  on  Private  Corporations  :  "  Excessive  competition  may  some- 
times result  in  actual  injury  to  the  public,  and  anti-competitive  contracts 
to  avert  personal  ruin  may  be  perfectly  reasonable." 

Patterson  on  Restriction  of  Trade  :  "  At  the  present  time  excessive 
competition  is  found  as  injurious  to  the  public  interests  as  the  absence 
of  competition." 

This  weight  of  authority,  and  more  which  could  readily  be  cited, 
shows  the  prevalent  notion  that  unrestricted  competition  is  necessarily 
a  public  benefit,  to  be  fallacious.  On  the  contrary,  while  competition 
in  its  primary  effects  is  of  priceless  value,  it  becomes  destructive  and 
disastrous  when  carried  to  excess. 

As  a  practical  proposition  the  general  subject  of  competition  needs 
no  legislation.  In  this  matter,  as  in  others,  there  is  an  attempt  to 
govern  the  world  too  much.  Competition  is  a  natural  force  ;  and  like 
other  forces  of  nature  will  do  its  best  to  work  when  undisturbed. 
Mankind  may  be  trusted  to  regulate  its  excesses,  and  to  mitigate  its 
undue  severity,  by  voluntary  cooperative  action  among  the  competitors 
themselves. 

The  legislature  of  Illinois  has  recently  passed  a  bill,  which  the 
governor  has  this  week  approved,  designed  to  suppress  agreements  by 
which  competitors  seek  to  temper  the  violence  of  their  competition. 
This  law,  known  as  "the  Berry  law,"  is  deliberately  and  grossly  dis- 
criminative, being  so  drawn  as  not  to  include  combinations  for  the  pro- 
tection of  personal  labor,  or  professional  services.  Nor  does  it  include 
insurance  premiums,  brokers'  commissions,  etc.,  being  limited  in  its 
scope  to  the  manufacture,  transportation  and  sale  of  merchandise,  pro- 
duce and  commodities,  agricultural  products  in  the  hands  of  producers 
being  specially  excepted.  It  commences  with  a  new  definition  of  the 
word  "trust,"  which  is  not  a  true  definition,  having  little  relation  to  the 


THE  EFFECT  OF  COMPETITION.  87 

legal  meaning  of  the  word,  but  which  makes  a  statutory  crime  out  of 
its  slang  meaning.  Among  other  things  the  law  says  that  any  agree- 
ment between  makers  and  sellers  that  the  sellers  shall  not  sell  below  a 
list,  card,  or  common  standard  figure  is  the  act  of  a  "trust";  and  also 
that  a  trust  includes  any  combination  to  fix  any  standard  or  figure 
upon  any  article  or  commodity  of  merchandise  whereby  its  price  to  the 
public  shall  in  any  manner  be  controlled  or  established.  The  theory  of 
its  framers  evidently  is  this ;  that  because  harm  to  the  public — that  is,  to 
consumers — has  been  thought  to  result  from  certain  highly  monopolistic 
combinations,  such  as  those  relating  to  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  oil, 
binding  twine,  hard  coal,  etc.,  the  legislature  of  Illinois  should  protect 
purchasers  at  the  expense  of  producers  and  sellers  by  forbidding  all 
combinations  of  that  nature,  whatever  their  object  or  effect  may  be. 
The  legislature  has  overlooked  the  fact  that  freedom  of  contract  is 
guaranteed  in  every  American  constitution,  and  that  no  legislature  can 
interfere  with  that  freedom  save  in  those  exceptional  cases  where  the 
results  are  clearly  injurious  to  the  public.  In  other  words,  while  extor- 
tion may  be  restrained,  agreements  of  federation,  like  other  lawful 
agreements,  are  under  constitutional  protection  until  proved  to  result  in 
extortion. 

I  am  not  among  those  who  believe  that  any  legislation  on  this  sub- 
jest  is  necessary  or  wise  ;  preferring  to  rely,  for  the  correction  of  the 
temporary  evils  that  are  occasionally  alleged  to  arise  from  combina- 
tions of  capital  and  skill,  upon  the  natural  forces  of  competition  which 
in  this  country  are  far  stronger  and  more  efficient  than  any  law  that  can 
be  devised.  But  if  law  must  interfere,  it  can  only  properly  deal  with 
developed  evils.  Under  our  form  of  government  it  cannot  interfere 
with  otherwise  lawful  arrangements  upon  the  mere  possibility  that  evil 
may  ensue. 

The  special  idiocy  of  the  Berry  bill,  however,  lies  in  this  that  it  does 
not  discriminate  between  combination  and  cooperation,  but  denounces 
both  alike  ;  entirely  ignoring  the  fact  that  they  are  of  directly  opposite 
tendencies ;  failing  to  perceive  that  the  purpose  and  effect  of  trade 
agreements  among  competitors  is  to  avoid  actual  combination,  by  fend- 
ing off  disastrous  competition  which  otherwise  would  have  no  other 
result.  By  cooperating  to  maintain  reasonable  prices,  competitors  pre- 
serve their  individual  competitive  existence,  which  is  in  constant  dan- 
ger of  extinguishment  through  their  inability  to  resist  the  pressure  of 
the  times.  The  forms  of  purchase  or  lease,  or  the  legal  sale  of  a  bank- 
rupt's effects,  represent  the  natural  tendencies  which  cooperation  fore- 
stalls ;  thus  preserving  the  agencies  of  competition  intact  and  enabling 
each  to  secure  such  reasonable  compensation  as  shall  prevent  the  sacri- 
fice of  individual  existence.  A  strict  construction  of  the  bill  might  pre- 
vent the  formation  of  a  partnership,  or  the  purchase  or  lease  by  one 
competitor  of  the  other's  business,  or  a  judicial  sale  by  a  sheriff  or 
receiver ;  such,  however,  cannot  have  been  the  purpose  of  the  legisla- 
ture. The  proper  title  of  the  bill  would  be  :  An  act  to  fostet  monop- 
olies by  driving  into  bankruptcy  all  the  weaker  manufacturers  and  mer- 
chants of  Illinois. 

Coming  now  to  the  particular  subject  which  I  was  invited  to  discuss, 
and   keeping  in  mind  the  distinction  which  I  have  endeavored  to  make 


88  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

clear,  there  is  no  difficulty  in  answering  the  questions  suggested  by  my 
theme. 

The  primary  effect  of  competition  upon  railway  construction  and 
railway  operation  is  unquestionably  valuable.  The  secondary  effect  is 
as  unquestionably  disastrous.  The  general  principles  governing  the 
subject  apply  with  full  force  to  this  particular  industry. 

I.       RAILWAY    CONSTRUCTION. 

The  construction  of  railways  may  be  carried  on  by  private  enter- 
prise or  by  the  state.  To  leave  the  construction  of  railways  to  private 
enterprise  involves  the  employment  of  competition  as  a  stimulant ;  to 
relegate  the  building  of  railways  wholly  to  the  state  implies  the  aban- 
donment of  competition  and  the  employment  in  its  place  of  a  unified 
scheme  which  shall  treat  the  subject  as  a  totality.  In  the  United  States 
the  competitive  method  has  been  employed  in  full  vigor.  The  course 
pursued  in  other  nations  will  be  rapidly  sketched. 

Looking  first  at  our  own  country,  we  find  that  although  some  of  the 
states  once  entered  upon  the  construction  of  transportation  routes,  for 
example  the  rail  and  canal  line  proposed  by  Pennsylvania  from 
Philadelphia  to  Pittsburgh,  the  state  railways  of  Michigan,  Indiana  and 
Georgia,  the  North  Cross  railway  of  Illinois,  and  the  Hoosac  Tunnel 
with  its  approaches  in  Massachusetts,  these  undertakings  were  all  sooner 
or  later  abandoned.  Contributions  of  money  by  municipalities  have 
been  customarily  represented  by  corresponding  securities  of  the  corpor- 
ation, either  stock  or  mortgage  bonds.  The  railways  of  the  United 
States  have  been  substantially  constructed  and  are  now  altogether  oper- 
ated by  private  capital  and  as  private  enterprises. 

Not  only  have  charters  for  this  purpose  been  freely  granted  by  more 
than  forty  different  legislatures,  including  Congress,  but  in  the  most  of 
the  states  and  territories  general,  laws  have  been  passed  under  which 
the  building  and  management  of  railways  have  been  made  as  free  as 
the  engaging  in  any  other  business  requiring  large  capital.  From  three 
to  thirteen  men  may  incorporate  themselves  by  the  simple  process  of 
filing  a  signed  certificate,  and  having  done  this  the  company  may  con- 
demn any  property  by  payment  of  its  appraised  value.  Having 
acquired  a  right  of  way,  it  may  engage  in  the  business  of  transp/ortation 
as  fast  as  its  rails  are  laid.  It  has  also  a  right  to  connect  with  existing 
lines  at  all  junction  points,  upon  equal  terms.  The  result  of  this  sys- 
tem has  been  a  most  marvelous  development  of  railway  lines.  Its 
primary  effect  has  in  many  ways  been  beneficial.  Without  imposing 
burdens  upon  the  states  or  the  nation,  this  vast  work  has  gone  on, 
accumulating  an  aggregate  capitalization  of  about  ten  billions  of  dol- 
lars, resulting  in  the  building  and  equipping  of  nearly  one  hundred  and 
seventy  thousand  miles  of  railroad  of  single,  double  and  quadruple 
track,  and  with  terminals  of  great  value  at  all  important  points.  It  is 
the  opinion  of  experts  that  this  property  could  not  be  reproduced  today 
for  the  amount  at  which  it  stands  charged  on  the  books  of  the  several 
thousand  corporations  which  have  done  the  work.  The  freedom 
allowed  in  the  construction  of  railways  in  the  United  States  has  pro- 
vided ample  transportation  service  for  thickly  settled  regions,  and  has 
made  possible  the  habitation  of  remote  and  apparently  barren  districts  ; 
cities  have  been  developed  infinitely ;    others  have  been  called   into 


THE  EFFECT  OF  COMPETIT^ION.  89 

being, — some  of  them,  like  Denver,  apparently  out  of  the  desert ;  civil- 
ization has  been  spread  abroad  throughout  the  land. 

Yet  there  is  another  side  to  the  story.  It  will  not  do  to  claim  that 
the  American  system  of  railway  construction  is  the  best  that  could  be 
devised.  A  successful  railroad  excites  the  cupidity  of  observers,  and 
new  roads  have  at  times  been  constructed  not  only  to  divide  a  profita- 
ble business  which  the  old  line  was  fully  adequate  to  perform,  but  also 
as  a  species  of  legal  blackmail  through  the  necessity  imposed  of  a  pur- 
chase or  a  lease  in  order  to  prevent  the  older  line  from  becoming  unre- 
munerative.  This  procedure  results  in  a  vast  wastage  of  capital,  serv- 
ing no  public  use,  and  involving  the  necessity  of  earnings  sufficient  to 
forever  support  a  duplicated  investment.  In  this  respect  competition 
in  railway  construction  in  the  United  States  has  been  much  too  free,  and 
its  secondary  effects  at  times  have  been  evil. 

In  England,  while  competition  in  railway  building  has  been  active 
the  regulative  principle  has  been  applied  that  any  new  railway  pro- 
posed must  be  shown  to  subserve  some  public  interest  not  previously 
provided  for.  A  similar  useful  principle  has  been  adopted  in  Massa- 
chusetts ;  and  without  doubt  every  state  should  provide  a  check  of  this 
character  upon  unrestrained  competition  in  the  construction  of  railway 
lines.  With  proper  restraints  against  the  granting  of  unnecessary  rail- 
road charters,  it  would  seem  that  for  countries  where  capital  is  abund- 
ant and  enterprise  is  dominant  the  competitive  rather  than  the  govern- 
mental method  is  to  be  preferred  as  a  means  for  supplying  the  adequate 
railway  facilities  which  modern  civilization  demands. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that  in  many  countries  there  are 
not  found  these  accumulations  of  money  seeking  immediate  investment 
which  are  required  in  order  to  carry  out  works  of  this  vast  character. 
In  such  cases  the  government  is  the  only  agency  through  which  such 
undertakings  can  be  accomplished.  This  of  itself  accounts  for  the  fact 
that  in  Russia  and  in  many  other  countries  few  railway  systems  could 
have  been  built  if  their  construction  had  been  left  to  business  competi- 
tion solely.  It  is  also  undeniable  that  upon  the  continent  of  Europe 
usage  and  its  traditions  clearly  indicated  the  government  as  the  natural 
originating  force  in  the  development  of  transportation  by  rail.  More- 
over the  requirements  of  armies  in  times  of  peace  and  war,  have  largely 
controlled  the  development  of  the  European  railway  systems  ;  conditions 
to  -yvhich  this  country  is  not  subject,  although  military  considerations 
have  by  no  means  been  wholly  absent  from  our  neighbors  on  the  north. 

In  France  a  comprehensive  scheme  of  railway  construction  was 
early  matured,  under  which  roads  were  built  by  chartered  companies, 
with  large  contributions  from  the  government,  to  which  the  property 
was  intended  ultimately  to  revert.  Changes  in  the  general  scheme 
have  been  made  from  time  to  time,  the  present  basis  being  that  of 
government  ownership  in  a  small  district  in  the  southwest,  the  remaining 
territory  of  the  republic  being  distributed  among  six  great  railway 
companies  which  are  guaranteed  a  minimum  dividend  that  in  this 
country  would  be  considered  large,  the  state  sharing  in  the  excess  of 
profit  above  a  fixed  percentage  as  to  each,  and  the  companies  provid- 
ing capital  for  necessary  new  construction  under  an  arrangement  by 
which  all  their  advances  are  to  be  gradually  repaid  ;  so  that  the  whole 
system  ultimately  is  to  become  the  property  of   the  government.     This 


90  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

plan  does  not  tend  to  the  rapid  increase  of  railway  lines.  Each  com- 
pany has  a  complete  monopoly  in  its  own  district,  there  being  no  such 
thing  as  competition  by  either  in  the  territory  of  the  rest.  The  system 
has  proved  remunerative  to  the  corporations,  and  the  state  has  been 
able  to  exercise  in  many  respects  an  efficient  control  over  railway 
operations.  But  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  development  of  rail- 
ways in  France  would  have  proceeded  much  more  rapidly  if  the 
avenues  of  private  investment  for  their  construction  had  been  more 
widely  opened. 

In  Germany,  on  the  other  hand,  there  was  at  first  no  attempt  to  lay 
out  a  general  plan.  When  railway  building  had  its  inception  the 
various  states  were  in  great  measure  independent  and  followed  differ- 
ing policies.  There  were  some  state  roads  and  more  roads  of  private 
ownership,  and  considerable  freedom  in  their  construction  was  apparent. 
Of  late,  however,  a  general  absorption  of  railway  ownership  in  the  state 
has  been  in  progress,  through  the  purchasing  of  private  lines  which 
made  it  for  the  interest  of  their  owners  to  sell,  until  Prussia  has  now 
become  the  leading  exemplar  of  state-owned  railroads.  The  original 
construction  of  the  roads,  however,  was  largely  through  the  agency  of 
private  corporations  and  under  the  influence  of  competition  upon  pri- 
vate enterprise. 

In  Belgium  the  state  began  the  building  of  railroads  at  an  early 
day.  Private  companies  were  permitted  to  build  lines  that  the  govern- 
ment did  not  see  fit  to  undertake,  and  about  1850  the  state  suspended 
the  construction  of  new  roads.  After  that  time  the  work  of  enlarging  the 
system  went  on  very  rapidly  through  a  violent  competition  among 
private  companies.  In  later  years  many  of  the  lines  so  built  were  pur- 
chased by  the  government,  until  at  the  present  time  it  owns  much  the 
larger  part  of  all.  The  development  of  the  system  was  influenced  by 
competition  until  it  became  excessive  and,  after  considerable  harm  had 
been  worked,  was  brought  within  control. 

Railway  building  in  Italy  commenced  when  the  various  states  were 
small,  and  the  lines  at  first  were  not  only  disconnected,  but  isolated. 
After  the  consolidation  of  the  government  the  ownership  of  the  roads 
was  acquired  by  it ;  but  after  several  years  of  state  management  it  was 
considered  expedient  to  turn  them  over  to  private  hands.  Two  great 
companies  were  organized,  each  controlling  a  system  throughout  the 
length  of  the  kingdom,  each  having  one  trunk  line  and  many  branches, 
and  both  reaching  most  of  the  principal  cities.  This  arrangement  has 
placed  in  the  hands  of  two  powerful  corporations  for  a  long  term  of 
years  the  operation  of  the  existing  lines  and  the  construction  of  new 
works.  The  details  of  the  plan  may  be  found  in  Professor  Hadley's 
instructive  book  on  Railway  Transportation,  to  which  I  have  frequently 
referred  for  facts.  It  is  obvious  that  while  there  is  competition  between 
the  two  railway  companies  of  Italy,  it  is  a  competition  which  is  is  not 
likely  to  run  to  extremities,  or  to  develop  excesses.  On  many  accounts 
the  present  Italian  system  seems  one  of  the  best  that  could  be  devised. 

A  notable  correspondence  is  observable  between  the  Italian  and  the 
Canadian  system.  In  Canada  also  two  great  companies  substantially 
control  all  the  railways  of  the  dominion,  competing  at  important  points, 
striving  with  each  other  for  admission  into  new  fields,  and  affording  a 
large  measure   of  competition,   without  subjecting  the  country  to  the 


THE  EFFECT  OF  COMPETITION.  9 1 

evils  which  arise  from  the  unrestrained  competition  of  innumerable 
companies  organized  at  the  will  of  individuals. 

This  audience  is  accustomed  to  dealing  with  figures  and  I  take 
great  pleasure  in  submitting  a  few  interesting  data  which  have  been 
kindly  prepared  for  this  purpose  by  Mr.  C.  C.  McCain,  the  accom- 
plished auditor  of  the  Interstate  commerce  commission,  showing  the 
number  of  miles  of  railway,  number  of  miles  per  loo  square  miles  of 
territory  and  number  of  miles  per  10,000  inhabitants,  in  the  countries 
named,  during  the  year  1891. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  number  of  miles  per  100  square  miles  of 
territory  in  the  entire  United  States  is  not  nearly  as  large  as  in  Great 
Britain,  France  and  Germany.  This  of  course  was  to  be  expected,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  so  much  of  the  acreage  of  the  United  States  still 
remains  uninhabited.  In  the  state  of  Illinois,  however,  which  may  be 
taken  as  fairly  representative  of  the  settled  portion  of  this  country,  the 
number  of  miles  per  100  square  miles  exceeds  that  of  any  other  country 
named,  while  the  number  of  miles  per  10,000  population  in  that  state, 
and  also  in  the  United  States  as  a  whole,  is  from  four  to  ten  times  as 
great  as  in  any  other  country. 

The  figures  are  as  follows 


Miles  of 

Miles  per 

Miles  per 

Railway. 

100  sq.  mi. 

10,000  pop. 

Germany          .          .         .         . 

28,982.63 

12.87 

5.28 

France         .          .          .          . 

-          23,578.73 

11.27 

6.09 

Austria-Hungary      - 

17,439-54 

6.60 

4.10 

Italy              .... 

8,193.46 

7.40 

2.67 

Spain       -         -         -          -         . 

6,295.16 

3.22 

3.60 

Great  Britain  and  Ireland    - 

20,181.05 

16.57 

5.34 

United  States 

168,402.74 

5.67 

26.29 

Illinois         -         _         .          . 

10,223.13 

18.25 

26.20 

The  lesson  to  be  drawn  from  this  hasty  survey  of  the  history  of  rail- 
way building  in  several  of  the  leading  countries  of  the  world  is  obvious. 
When  financial  conditions  make  its  use  available  the  competitive  plan 
is  sure  to  promote  a  wide  and  free  development  of  railway  transporta- 
tion ;  and  it  is  only  to  be  deprecated  when  its  use  overruns  the  safe 
line  of  conservative  investment  and  reaches  out  into  ruinous  excess. 
For  this  some  restraint  should  be  everywhere  provided.  The  question 
is  one  of  the  granting  of  unnecessary  charters,  which  can  only  be  con- 
trolled by  action  of  the  various  states  ;  and  such  action  cannot  at  once 
be  expected.  But  capitalists  can  and  do  deprecate  the  construction  of 
railroads  which  simply  parallel  existing  lines  and  it  is  properly  becom- 
ing increasingly  difficult  to  obtain  money  for  that  purpose. 

II.       RAILWAY    OPERATION. 

In  the  operation  of  railways,  the  distinction  between  the  results  of 
competitive  and  non-competitive  methods  may  be  even  more  clearly 
noted.  State  control  involves  the  absence  of  competition ;  it  is 
essentially  monopolistic.  No  competition  exists  in  France,  where  the 
territory  is  divided.  Competition  between  two  competitors  only  is 
found  in  Italy  and  Canada.  In  Germany,  Belgium  and  some  other 
countries  the  government  itself  is  subject  to  a  certain  measure  of  com- 
petition   from    lines    operated    by    private    companies,    over    which, 


92  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

nevertheless,  the  state  has  much  power  of  control.  In  England  there 
is  a  strong  competition  in  some  respects  between  the  half  dozen  leading 
lines  which  practically  cover  the  country,  but  competitive  excess  in 
respect  to  rates  has  been  controlled  by  agreements,  called  conferences, 
between  the  competitors  themselves.  Railway  shareholders  and  the 
representatives  of  capital  generally  are  potential  in  the  English  parlia- 
ment, and  are  not  regarded  with  disfavor  by  the  English  courts.  The 
effect  of  water  competition  in  England  upon  railway  rates  has  been 
notable,  resulting  in  disparities  between  rates  from  seaport  to  seaport  as 
compared  with  purely  inland  rates.  The  general  conservatism  of  English 
methods  and  the  recognized  obligation  of  paying  dividends  sufficed  to 
maintain  rates  between  competitive  railroads  without  substantial  change 
for  many  years.  Some  three  years  since  a  parliamentary  investigation 
was  set  on  foot  which  was  followed  by  the  framing  of  a  bill  conferring 
additional  powers  upon  the  board  of  trade,  and  finally  resulting  in  the 
imposition  of  an  amended  classification  and  a  system  of  maximum 
rates,  which  went  into  operation  with  the  present  year,  the  results  of 
which  have  not  yet  been  fully  worked  out. 

In  the  United  States  a  very  different  policy  has  prevailed.  More 
than  six  hundred  operating  lines  exercise  an  absolutely  independent 
rate-making  power,  and  attempts  to  regulate  their  competition  as  to 
rates  have  been  regarded  by  the  public  with  extreme  disfavor.  Each 
railway  company  is  organically  distinct  from  every  other  railway  com- 
pany. The  business  of  every  section  is  common  to  several  competing 
lines.  Intense  rivalry  has  been  developed  between  the  traffic  officials 
of  all.  Not  only  does  violent  competition  exist  at  commercial  centers 
but  even  at  strictly  local  points  it  controls  rates  and  the  business 
methods  of  the  railways  to  an  extent  much  greater  than  is  generally 
understood.  It  would  be  almost  impossible  to  find  any  point  on  the 
line  of  any  important  road  where  transportation  charges  could  now  be 
arbitrarily  established  upon  the  basis  of  cost  of  service,  or  upon  any 
other  definite  rule.  Moreover,  there  is  a  vast  system  of  water  routes 
on  which  the  expense  of  transportation  is  relatively  very  small,  exert- 
ing an  incalculable  influence  upon  railway  rates.  The  result  has  been 
the  development  of  the  greatest  freedom  in  the  movement  of  traffic 
which  the  world  has  ever  seen,  stimulated  by  a  scale  of  rates  which 
may  safely  be  styled  abnormally  low.  This  has  been  in  many  respects 
of  great  value  to  the  nation.  It  has  resulted  in  the  effacement  of  the 
boundaries  of  the  states  so  far  as  the  interchange  of  commerce  is  con- 
cerned. It  has  brought  the  granaries  of  the  west  so  near  to  the 
Atlantic  seaboard  that  agricultural  values  in  the  eastern  states  have 
been  seriously  disturbed.  It  assembles  ores,  cokes  and  coals  from 
mining  regions,  separated  by  thousands  of  miles,  and  makes  possible 
the  production  of  metallic  products  at  a  cost  almost  incredibly  low. 
The  contrast  between  the  effects  of  this  system  and  of  that  in  vogue  in 
countries  where  competition  in  transportation  either  does  not  exist  or 
has  been  closely  limited,  is  apparent  to  the  most  casual  observer.  It 
has  not  only  produced  the  cheapest  transportation  of  freight  known  to 
the  world,  but  it  has  led  to  the  development  of  operating  methods 
which  fairly  warrant  a  lower  basis  of  rates  than  would  have  been  con- 
sidered possible  to  the  wildest  enthusiast  of  thirty  years  ago.  The 
capacity  of    cars    has  been   trebled,    requiring   enormous   addition    to 


THE  EFFECT  OF  COMPETITION.  93 

the  power  of  locomotives  ;  and  their  use  has  been  made  practicable  by 
the  adoption  of  rails  of  steel.  Numberless  devices  have  been  intro- 
•duced  to  facilitate  the  movement  of  particular  classes  of  traffic. 
Special  cars  have  been  designed  for  the  transportation  of  different 
commodities,  such  as  oil  cars  for  oil ;  live  stock  cars  for  animals ;  and 
especially  refrigerator  cars  for  fruit,  beer  and  dressed  meats. 

On  the  other  hand  comparatively  little  mechanical  progress  has 
been  observable  in  some  of  the  countries  to  which  our  attention  natur- 
ally turns.  The  equipment  of  roads  in  continental  Europe  and  even 
in  England  does  not  show  the  advances  which  have  been  so  marked  in 
this  country.  The  effort  to  develop  special  forms  of  traffic  has  been 
far  less  apparent.  The  wagons  used  still  carry  the  same  loads  and  the 
trains  handled  are  comparatively  light.  Old  methods  are  abandoned 
with  great  reluctance.  The  expense  of  suggested  improvements  is 
often  a  sufficient  barrier  to  their  introduction.  Rates  go  on  from  year 
to  year  with  little  variation,  and  the  general  standard  of  the  tariffs  is 
not  materially  dffierent  from  that  of  thirty  years  ago.  In  view  of  the 
results  which  are  so  clearly  apparent  from  competition  in  the  operation 
of  railroads  in  the  United  States,  the  project  of  their  purchase  by  the 
general  government  and  their  operation  by  the  nation  seems  not  only 
chimerical,  but  also  suicidal. 

But  while  the  primary  effects  of  competition  have  been  so  clearly 
beneficial,  its  secondary  effects  have  been  equally  marked.  Without 
question  competition  in  the  operation  of  our  railroads  has  gone  much 
too  far. 

It  was  much  easier  for  competition  to  become  disastrous  in  the 
handling  of  railway  traffic  than  in  any  other  industry.  For  one  reason, 
the  number  of  figures  found  in  the  tariffs  is  almost  beyond  computation, 
A  wholesale  grocer  handles  a  great  diversity  of  articles,  for  each  of 
which  a  price  must  be  made  ;  but  the  railroad  transports  each  article 
handled  by  the  grocer,  the  jobber  in  dry  goods,  in  hardware,  and  by 
every  ather  merchant.  Every  commodity  which  is  the  subject  of  sale 
or  purchase  must  have  its  established  tariff;  and  these  tariffs  must 
not  only  be  fixed  for  customers  at  a  single  point,  but  must  vary  for 
every  station  on  the  line.  More  than  this,  they  must  be  determined 
from  every  station  on  each  line  to  every  station  on  every  other  line ; 
and  this  not  by  the  mere  addition  of  local  charges,  but  by  an  adjust- 
ment favoring  through  traffic  and  requiring  the  due  protection  of 
different  markets  and  producing  points.  The  rates  quotable  by  any 
single  freight  agent  are  almost  infinite  in  number  and  their  infinity  is 
duplicated  by  the  necessary  differences  made  between  carload  and 
less-than-carload  shipments.  In  addition  to  the  classification  and  the 
rates,  each  shipment  much  be  governed  by  a  series  of  established  rules, 
which  may  be  varied  as  easily  and  with  the  same  effect.  For  every 
detail  in  respect  to  which  a  merchant  or  manufacturer  feels  the  pres- 
sure of  competition  in  his  business  the  traffic  manager  experiences  a 
thousand. 

Moreover  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  transfer  of  railway  capital  to 
other  uses.  A  railroad  is  constructed  at  vast  expense,  and  when  com- 
pleted the  capital  invested  becomes  fixed  for  all  time.  However 
severe  the  competition,  it  must  be  endured.  Even  in  cases  of  corpo- 
rate bankruptcy  the  wheels  never   cease   to  turn.     A   rival   company 


94  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

finds  itself  competing  with  a  financial  shadow,  but  a  very  live  shadow 
nevertheless.  An  interlocutory  decree  suspends  the  payment  of  divi- 
dends and  of  coupons.  Operating  expenses,  if  not  earned,  may  be 
provided  for  by  borrowing  upon  the  certificates  of  the  receiver ;  and 
the  last  slate  of  a  line  in  competition  with  an  absolute  bankrupt  is  far 
worse  than  the  first,  when  its  competitor  was  struggling  to  maintain  an 
apparent  insolvency.  The  strife  between  rival  companies  continues 
even  beyond  the  grave. 

With  all  this  opportunity  for  manipulation  in  the  application  of  the 
numberless  details  of  classifications,  tariffs  and  rules,  and  with  this 
strife  that  can  never  end,  even  though  a  corporation  be  financially 
ruined  under  its  exactions,  the  stringency  of  railway  competition  is  so 
great  as  to  have  little  in  common  with  the  ordinary  competition  of 
manufacturers,  merchants,  professions,  insurance  agencies,  and  labor. 
It  is  far  away  beyond  them  all  in  its  severity. 

Moreover  it  is  subject  to  another  condition  which  does  not  exist  else- 
where. Railway  rates  are  treated  as  within  legislative  regulation,  which 
is  not  true  as  to  prices  of  commodities,  or  of  professional  services  or 
labor.  Unreasonable  rates,  that  is,  rates  unreasonably  high,  are  de- 
nounced by  law  ;  while  rates  unreasonably  low  are  not  illegal,  but  on 
the  contrary  seem  by  a  strange  fatuity  to  be  everywhere  approved.  To 
such  an  extent  does  this  idea  prevail  that  railway  rates  which  the  exac- 
tions or  the  folly  of  competitive  strife  have  reduced  during  a  season  of 
what  is  properly  called  warfare,  are  seized  upon  as  standards  by  legis- 
lators and  commissioners,  under  the  absurd  idea  that  any  rate  made  by 
a  railroad  company  must  be  assumed  to  be  reasonable  in  the  sense  of 
affording  adequate  compensation  for  the  service  rendered.  Railway 
companies  are  thus  in  a  position  of  being  constantly  driven  into 
rate  wars  and  applauded  for  their  energy  in  conducting  them,  while  at 
the  same  time  the  unremunerative  rates  then  prevailing  are  seized  upon 
and  made  permanent. 

The  unfortunate  results  of  excessive  competition  are  found  upon 
every  hand.  Three  classes  will  be  noted  briefly.  Railway  bankrupt- 
cies, rate  wars,  and  unjust  discriminations.  The  number  of  railway 
bankruptcies,  even  during  periods  of  great  general  prosperity,  is  simply 
appalling.  The  statement  was  made  by  the  chairman  of  this  railway 
congress  in  his  opening  address  that  in  the  seventeen  years  which 
ended  with  1892,  526  United  States  railway  companies,  covering  55,670 
miles  and  representing  3,122  millions  of  dollars  of  capital  were  sold 
uixder  foreclosure.  This  was  32  per  cent  of  the  present  mileage,  and  31 
per  cent  of  the  present  capitalization  of  all  the  railways  of  the  Union. 
In  1892,  36  roads  with  10,508  miles  and  representing  357  millions  of 
capital  went  into  receivers'  hands,  in  addition  to  the  foreclosure  sales 
of  that  year. 

It  is  not  for  the  interest  of  any  country  that  its  investments  of  capi- 
tal be  discredited  and  effaced.  Our  railway  securities  should  rank  in 
foreign  markets  with  the  securities  of  our  Government.  That  they  do 
not  so  rank  is  evidenced  by  the  hundreds  of  millions  of  such  securities 
which  have  been  returned  to  our  shores  during  the  past  three  years,  as 
well  as  by  the  unfriendly  criticism  of  the  English  financial  press. 
While  the  rights  of  stockholders  and  even  of  bondholders  are  not  highly 
regarded  in  some  portions  of  our  land,  it  must  be  conceded  by  all  that 


THE  EFFETCT  OF  COMPETITION.  95 

they  have  rights  ;  and  that  competition  which  destroys  their  value  is  of 
the  same  nature  as  the  competition  which  forces  the  failure  of  the  man- 
ufacturer, or  the  merchant.  It  does  not  tend  to  the  general  advantage, 
but  the  contrary.  Moreover  it  directly  leads  to  monopoly  through  the 
opportunities  afforded  to  the  competitors  which  survive  of  acquiring  the 
property  of  the  bankrupt  on  easy  terms. 

It  would  be  far  better  for  the  country  if  its  railroads  as  a  whole  were 
earning  enough  to  feel  at  ease.  The  retrenchments  involved  in  insuffi- 
cient earnings  are  prejudicial  to  every  interest.  New  construction  stops 
first  of  all ;  then  repairs  to  track,  equipment,  bridges,  stations  and  other 
structures  are  suspended.  The  number  of  employes  is  diminished ;  the 
wages  of  those  that  remain  are  reduced.  Inefficiency  in  the  handling 
of  the  business  is  developed.  The  road  as  a  general  public  servant 
fails  to  perform  its  functions  with  safety  and  efficiency.  Accidents 
increase  ;  and  sooner  or  later  every  interest  to  which  the  railroad  is 
related  feels  the  baneful  influence  of  its  insufficient  earnings. 

There  is  no  sense  or  business  sagacity  in  this  condition.  While 
many  railway  failures  no  doubt  have  been  precipitated  by  undue  expan- 
sions of  territory  and  overweening  ambitions  in  the  management,  it  can- 
not be  denied  that  their  vast  majority  have  been  what  are  known  in 
trade  as  honest  failures,  resulting  from  actual  inability  to  earn  enough 
to  meet  the  necessary  outgoes  of  the  corporation.  The  operations  of 
many  of  the  roads  are  conducted  upon  too  close  a  margin  of  profit ;  the 
violence  of  competition  has  brought  down  earnings  so  that  many  com- 
panies are  watching  every  weekly  and  monthly  statement  with  anxiety, 
in  doubt  until  the  last  moment  whether  a  dividend  must  not  be  passed 
or  a  coupon  defaulted.  Railway  bankruptcies  are  the  first  and  most 
obvious  result  of  unhealthy  railway  competition. 

A  railway  rate  war  unsettles  values,  disturbs  business  relations, 
makes  contracts  worthless,  encourages  speculation,  invites  disaster. 
Steadiness  in  railway  rates  is  the  constant  demand  of  the  intelligent 
business  man.  He  dreads  all  tariff  changes  and  especially  all  so-called 
tariff  wars.  His  appeal  is  for  fair  and  reasonable  rates,  inviolate  from 
year  to  year,  properly  adjusted  as  between  business  centers  on  the  one 
hand  and  regions  of  distribution  or  supply  on  the  other,  and  constantly 
alike  to  all.  Excessive  competition  leads  at  once  to  rate  reductions, 
and  reprisals  are  almost  sure  to  follow.  A  rate  war  which  is  thus 
invited  spreads  disaster  on  every  hand. 

Worse  than  this,  however,  in  this  country  has  been  the  tendency  to 
secret  manipulations  which  excessive  railway  competition  has  engend- 
ered. In  the  violence  of  competition  it  has  been  thought  necessary  to 
give  to  traffic  officials  a  certain  measure  of  discretion,  the  importance 
of  which  they  have  been  quick  to  appreciate.  They  are  all  engaged  in 
developing,  or  at  least  in  retaining,  the  traffic  of  their  respective  lines  ; 
and  traffic  is  so  easily  controlled  by  pecuniary  considerations  that  the 
practice  of  granting  them  became  long  since  established  as  a  custom 
and  is  often  claimed  by  shippers  as  a  right.  This  results  in  what  is 
known  to  the  law  as  unjust  discrimination  or  undue  preference.  It  may 
be  accomplished  in  a  hundred  ways.  The  rebate,  the  commission,  the 
salary  account,  the  free  storage,  the  cartage  allowance,  the  under  bill- 
ing of  weights,  the  payment  of  claims,  the  free  pass — these  are  a  few 
of  the  many  devices  which  ingenious  men  have  developed  for  the  secur- 
ing of  traffic  by  the  granting  of  special  favors,  which  do  their  work  only 


96  WORLUS  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

because  they  are  granted  in  secret  and  are  not  granted  to  all.  In  this 
respect  railway  competition  in  the  United  States  has  run  riot.  The 
most  strenuous  exertions  on  the  part  of  intelligent  railway  managers  has 
proved  unavailing  to  put  these  methods  down,  under  existing  legisla- 
tive conditions. 

Laws  for  their  suppression  are  passed  only  to  be  ignored.  The  evil 
must  be  overcome  in  some  other  way  than  by  statute.  As  was  well  said 
the  other  day  in  this  connection  by  president  Hill,  legislation  cannot 
mend  a  broken  limb  ;  the  forces  of  nature  must  have  opportunity  to  do 
their  work.  Yet  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  very  same  law  which 
attempted  to  put  an  end  to  unjust  discriminations  by  fines  and  imprison- 
ments denounced  its  heaviest  penalty  against  all  efforts  to  suppress  this 
evil  in  the  only  natural  way  ;  namely  by  the  voluntary  cooperative  regu- 
lation of  the  excessive  competition  which  begets  it. 

This  special  railway  disease  is  unknown  in  many — perhaps  in  most 
— other  countries.  It  is  of  course  never  heard  of  in  France  where  there 
is  practically  no  railway  competition.  It  is  equally  absent  in  England 
where  railway  pools  have  always  been  permitted  to  do  their  proper 
work  in  its  suppression  ;  and  in  Belgium  and  Germany,  where  the  state 
roads  have  always  pooled  their  common  traffic  with  private  roads  to  the 
end  that  the  business  for  which  they  mutually  compete  may  be  fairly 
apportioned  to  each.  I  recently  asked  an  official  of  the  Government 
railways  of  Austria-Hungary  how  the  prevention  of  unjust  discrimina- 
tion was  accomplished  in  that  country.  I  had  great  difficulty  in  making 
him  understand  my  meaning.  He  had  never  heard  of  a  case  in  which 
a  shipper  was  granted  a  reduced  rate  or  a  special  privilege.  I  insisted 
that  nevertheless  such  a  case  might  possibly  occur.  He  answered  that 
he  could  not  conceive  it  possible,  for  the  tariffs  were  observed  with 
absolute  integrity  in  his  country  as  a  matter  of  course  ;  but  if  such  a 
transaction  could  be  imagined  he  supposed  that  the  offending  agent 
would  be  at  once  delated. 

In  this  particular  railway  service  of  the  United  States  has  been 
extremely  demoralized  by  so-called  free  and  unrestricted  competition. 
The  only  remedy  yet  suggested  that  may  overcome  this  difficulty,  and 
at  the  same  time  preserve  the  American  system  of  competitive  railway 
corporations,  is  the  repeal  of  the  anti-pooling  law.  It  could  then  be 
made  for  the  interest  of  the  competitors  themselves  to  cease  their  ruin- 
ous strife, — a  strife  ruinous  alike  to  the  competing  lines  and  to  the  pub- 
lic which  submits  perforce  to  the  abuses  of  unjust  discrimination. 

It  is  the  old,  old  story.  As  I  said  some  time  ago,  competition  is  a 
good  servant,  but  a  hard  master.  As  applied  to  railway  construction 
and  railway  operation  it  is  the  true  principle  for  a  free  people  to  adopt, 
but  in  excess  it  leads  to  the  worst  possible  results.  The  necessity  for 
its  restraint  must  be  recognized,  and  reasonable  steps  to  ensure  its  regu- 
lation within  proper  bounds  should  be  promoted.  The  function  of  law 
under  the  regulative  power  conferred  by  the  constitution  upon  Congress 
should  be  to  maintain  a  general  oversight  over  the  management  of  rail- 
ways, insisting  upon  the  publicity  of  rates  for  the  protection  of  the  pub- 
lic, and  of  accounts  for  the  protection  of  security  holders,  restraining 
extortion  and  undue  preference  in  the  transportation  of  persons  and 
property,  but  leaving  the  carriers  entirely  free  to  enter  into  cooperative 
engagements  among  themselves  for  the  maintenance  of  such  rates  as 
shall  from  time  to  time  be  legally  established. 


PREVENTION  AND  CONTROL  OF  STRIKES.  97 


RAILWAY  STRIKES;  WHAT  SHOULD  BE  DONE  IN  THE  WAY 
OF  PREVENTION  AND  CONTROL. 


E.    W.    MEDDAUGH,    GENERAL    SOLICITOR    CHICAGO    &    GRAND    TRUNK    RAILWAY 

COMPANY. 


The  terms  and  conditions  on  which  the  wage-earner  will  render  his 
services  to  a  railway  company  must  be  the  subject  of  agreement,  as  in 
the  case  of  other  employers  of  men. 

The  primary  question,  therefore,  in  considering  what  should  be  done 
to  prevent  and  control  railway  strikes,  is  :  How  can  agreements  between 
employers  and  their  employes  respecting  the  services  of  the  latter  be 
best  secured  and  rendered  most  certain  of  fulfillment  by  the  employe? 
It  must  be  apparent  to  every  one  who  is  familiar  with  the  present  atti- 
tude and  spirit  of  the  followers  of  labor,  as  manifested  in  all  depart- 
ments of  industry,  that  the  old  conditions,  when  the  capitalist  was  king 
and  the  wage-earner  was  but  little  above  the  dependent  serf,  have 
passed  away — at  least  in  this  country — never  to  return. 

The  intelligent  and  discerning  man  of  A.  D.  1693,  who  could  have 
foreseen  the  dissemination  of  education  among  the  masses  of  the  people 
which  now  exists  in  this  republic  of  ours,  and  m  many  of  the  states  o£ 
Europe,  might  have  predicted  the  contest  we  are  witnessing  here  and 
there  between  capital  and  labor.  When  education  was  limited  to  the 
few,  and  the  masses  of  men  were  ignorant,  capital,  being  in  the  hands 
of  the  more  intelligent,  imposed  its  own  terms  upon  labor.  The  law  of 
supply  and  demand  alone,  without  the  cooperative  volition  of  wage- 
earners,  then  determined  the  rate  of  wages  and  all  other  terms  of  labor, 
as  it  determined  the  price  of  beef  and  pork. 

It  is  a  saying  attributed  to  a  somewhat  famous  local  politician  of  one 
of  the  New  England  states,  that  "  Education  is  the  bane  of  democra- 
cy," referring  to  the  political  party  of  that  name.  It  has  proved  to  be 
the  bane  of  capital's  arbitrary  dominion  over  labor.  Thought  is  dan- 
gerous to  the  abuses  of  power  everywhere,  and  the  chief  value  of  educa- 
tion is  in  teaching  men  to  think.  The  wage-earner  has  discovered  that 
he  has  been  contributing  more  of  the  profits  realized  than  the  wages 
received  by  him  were  a  fair  equivalent  for  ;  in  other  words,  that  he  has 
not  been  paid  his  just  share  of  the  profits  gained  from  the  joint  pro- 
ducts of  his  labor  and  the  capital  invested  ;  that  the  employer  has  been 
getting  the  lion's  share.  The  wage-earner  now  demands  a  more  equi- 
table division. 

He  has  also  arrived  at  a  more  or  less  clear  perception  of  injustice  in 
some  of  the  terms  and  conditions  which  the  employer  has  heretofore 
imposed  upon  him  in  the  rules  and  regulations  of  the  service.  He  de- 
mands a  modification  of  these.  Capital  so  long  played  the  role  of  abso- 
lute monarch  in  these  matters  that  it  came  to  believe  in  its  right  to 
dictate.     Here,  as  in  other  human  affairs,  a  custom  long  established  be- 


98  WORLUS  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

came  its  own  sufificient  excuse  for  being,  and  the  slightest  infringement 
upon  it  was  resented  as  a  wrong.  It  is  of  the  essence  of  conservatism  to 
be  stubborn. 

These  demands  of  labor  have,  of  course,  been  resisted;  each  en- 
croachment upon  this  time-honored  prerogative  of  capital  has  been  dis- 
puted, and  labor  has  been  compelled  to  organize  in  order  to  carry  on 
the  contest  successfully.  It  early  became  convinced  that  capital  would 
yield  nothing,  would  not  even  correct  its  more  glaring  abuses,  save  on 
compulsion.  This  contest  between  wage-earners  and  the  representatives 
of  capital  has  now  been  going  on  in  this  country  for  several  years,  and, 
step  by  step,  the  former  have  steadily  gained.  Many  of  the  ancient 
privileges  of  capital  have  been  yielded,  and  labor  is  now  fast  coming  to 
be  recognized  as  having  some  rights  which  capital  is  bound  to  respect. 
The  controversy  is  destined  to  continue,  I  believe,  until  labor  shall  be 
universally  conceded  an  equal  voice  with  capital  in  all  business  affairs 
in  which  they  cooperate.  But  before  this  can  be  fully  realized,  wage- 
earners  must  reach  a  much  higher  educational  plane,  both  intellectual 
and  moral,  than  they  now  occupy  as  a  class.  They  must  come  to  a 
more  comprehensive  knowledge  of  business  problems,  and  a  quicker 
moral  sense  of  contract  obligations  respecting  their  services. 

It  has  been,  not  only  natural,  but  inevitable,  that  labor  should  be 
guilty  of  excesses  in  this  peaceful  conflict.  Extremes  beget  counter- 
extremes.  Action  and  reaction  are  equal,  here  as  elsewhere.  The 
wage-earner  has  sometimes  been  unreasonable  in  his  demands.  This 
has  been  partly  due  to  his  ignorance  of  what  the  employer  should  rea- 
sonably yield,  and  partly  to  the  same  spirit  that  he  has  justly  complained 
of  in  his  employer,  namely,  greed  of  gain  for  self,  even  though  it  be  at 
another's  cost. 

His  methods  of  operation,  too,  have  been  in  some  respects  not  only 
unjustifiable,  but  reprehensible.  The  right  of  wage-earners  in  any  and 
all  branches  of  industry  to  band  together  for  the  purpose  of  exacting 
from  their  employers  just  wages  and  just  conditions  of  service,  is  un- 
questionable. And  they  have  a  moral  right  to  quit  the  service  in  a  body, 
when  not  bound  by  contract,  and  to  refuse  to  re-enter  it  until  their  rea- 
sonable demands  are  granted.  But  they  have  neither  a  moral  nor  a 
legal  right  to  forcibly  interfere  with  anyone  else  who  may  be  willing  to 
work  for  the  wages  or  on  the  terms  which  they  reject.  The  same  meas- 
ure of  right  and  freedom  which  they  claim  for  themselves  they  should 
yield  to  others — must  be  compelled  by  the  strong  arm  of  the  law  to  yield, 
if  necessary.  Their  right  of  control  or  interference  in  this  matter  is  lim- 
ited to  themselves.  They  may  refuse  their  services  on  any  terms  to 
which  they  do  not  agree.  But  they  cannot  be  permitted,  either  individ- 
ually or  collectively,  to  prevent  others  from  giving  service  on  those 
terms.     The  exercise  of  such  power  is  tyranny  in  its  worst  form. 

And  still  less  is  it  to  be  tolerated  that  they  should  take  possession  of 
their  employer's  property,  and  assume  to  hold  and  control  it  as  a  means 
of  forcing  terms.  Such  methods  are  not  only  antagonistic  to  law,  but  to 
the  essential  spirit  of  all  government.  They  mean,  should  they  become 
general  in  spheres  of  industry,  the  universal  reign  of  anarchy;  for  law- 
lessness is  contagious.  Prosperous  labor  can  do  nothing  else  so  bad  for 
itself  as  to  indulge  in  these  methods  of  redress. 

We  all  understand  that  the  final  and  only  complete  remedy  for  un- 


PREVENTION  AND  CONTROL  OF  STRIKES.  99 

reasonable  demands  of  the  wage-earner,  as  for  the  greedy  exactions  of 
the  employer,  is  education.  Experience,  through  these  contests  be- 
tween them,  will  finally  bear  the  fruit  of  knowledge  for  both.  The 
wage-earner  will  learn  the  simple  lesson  that  to  injure  the  business  of 
the  employer  by  exacting  or  doing  anything  which  renders  it  inade- 
quately remunerative,  is  to  injure  his  own  interests.  And  so  the  em- 
ployer will  learn  that  it  is  one  of  the  conditions  of  the  permanent  pros- 
perity of  his  undertaking  that  the  men  who  render  their  services  to  it 
are  so  treated  and  dealt  with,  in  the  matter  of  wages  and  other  things, 
as  to  afford  them  no  just  cause  for  complaint.  Then  the  true  balance 
will  be  reached,  and  excesses  on  either  side  will  cease.  But  in  the 
interim,  and  while  this  educational  process  is  going  on,  the  law  must 
here,  as  elsewhere,  be  invoked  to  mitigate  the  evils  incident  to  ignor- 
ance. 

Starting,  then,  with  the  equal  right  of  labor  with  capital  to  deter- 
mine what  share  of  the  profits  of  any  industrial  enterprise  in  which  they 
are  jointly  engaged,  it  shall  receive,  and  conceding  that  this  must  be 
settled  by  agreement  between  the  capitalist  and  wage-earner  (and  I  see 
no  other  way  of  settling  it),  we  are  at  once  met  by  a  practical  difficulty. 
Capital  is  always  represented  by  a  responsible  body,  natural  or  arti- 
ficial— a  body  with  power  to  enter  into  contracts;  and  which  is  legally 
liable  for  their  breach,  and  has  more  or  less  of  pecuniary  responsibility. 
Labor,  on  the  other  hand,  with  wage-earners  organized  as  at  present  in 
this  country,  presents  no  association  known  to  the  law  as  its  representa- 
tive. Its  organizations  as  such  are  practically  without  legal  liability,  or 
pecuniary  responsibility.  They  are  incapable  of  entering  into  a  con- 
tract that  is  enforceable  respecting  the  services  of  their  members.  And 
yet  the  individual  members  insist  that  employers  shall  recognize  the 
association,  and  deal  only  with  its  officers,  in  all  matters  of  difference 
between  the  employer  and  his  men.  The  employer  cannot  be  sure  of 
the  permanency  of  any  terms  made  with  these  bodies  in  respect  of  the 
services  of  labor,  and  knows  that  he  is  without  legal  remedy  for  the 
breach  of  their  agreements.  This  situation  of  labor,  in  addition  to  the 
disadvantage  to  which  it  subjects  the  representatives  of  capital,  preju- 
dices the  interests  of  labor  itself,  for  it  discourages  capital  from  engag- 
ing in  business  enterprises,  and  causes  its  representatives  to  shrink 
from  making  terms  through  these  labor  associations  with  wage-earners. 
The  capitalist  feels  this  want  of  parity  of  relations  and  responsibility. 

It  is  of  primary  importance  to  labor,  if  it  is  to  continued  to  be  rep- 
resented in  its  several  and  separate  departments  be  organized  bodies — 
and  that  it  should  be  so  is  equally  its  own  interest  and  that  of  capital 
— that  its  representatives  should  be  legally  incorporated,  with  officers 
who  can  represent  and  act  for  the  body,  and  enter  into  contracts  that 
will  be  obligatory  upon  it  and  its  members,  and  for  breach  of  which 
there  shall  be  legal  liability  and  pecuniary  responsibility,  with  power 
in  the  corporation  to  enforce  such  penalties  against  members  who  vio- 
late agreements  regularly  made  in  respect  of  their  services,  as  will 
protect  it  against  loss.  With  such  a  body  the  representatives  of  capital 
could  safely  deal ;  and  it  would  give  the  employers  of  labor  a  sense  of 
certainty  and  security  under  contracts  respecting  this  most  important 
element  in  all  business  enterprises.  Confidence  would  then  take  the 
place  of  the  timidity  and   uncertainty  which  are  now   felt   respecting 


lOO  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

the  element  of  labor.  Business  schemes  which  the  enterprising  but 
ever  cautious  capitalist  now  hesitates  to  enter  upon  because  of  the 
impossibility  of  rendering  certain  the  cost  of  the  labor  involved  in 
them,  would  then  be  readily  undertaken.  The  value  that  this  improved 
state  of  things  would  be  to  the  wage-earner  is  apparent. 

I  cannot  here  consider  in  detail  the  provisions  of  a  law  for  the 
incorporation,  guidance  and  government  of  such  labor  organizations. 
Nor  can  I  take  time  to  discuss  the  question  of  whether  the  popular 
labor  combinations  can  be  forced  to  organize  under  such  a  law,  sub- 
ject to  the  alternative  of  disbanding  altogether.  I  will  only  add  that 
it  is  quite  feasible,  I  think,  to  draft  an  act  for  the  incorporation  of 
wage-earners  which  will  fairly  protect  their  rights  and  interests  and 
the  rights  and  interests  of  their  employers,  and  which  should,  there- 
fore, be  equally  acceptable  to  both  ;  and  I  believe  that  when  this  shall 
have  been  done,  and  it  shall  have  been  enacted  into  a  law,  wage- 
earners  of  all  classes  can  be  made  to  see  and  appreciate  its  advant- 
ages, and  that  they  will  gladly  avail  themselves  of  its  provisions. 
There  is  no  more  worthy  work  open  to  the  patriot  and  philanthropist 
today  in  this  country,  than  the  perfection  and  procurement  of  such 
legislation.  This  so-called  labor  question  is  the  irrepressible  one  of 
our  time,  and  there  will  be  no  permanent  peace  between  the  wage- 
earners  and  their  employers  until  it  is  settled. 

"  The  leaders  of  industry,  if  industry  is  ever  to  be  led,  are  virtually 
the  captains  of  the  world.  If  there  be  no  nobleness  in  them,  there 
will  never  be  an  aristocracy,"  said  Thomas  Carlyle. 

It  is  necessary  that  these  captains  of  industry — the  leaders  of  labor 
and  of  business  capital — be  brought  to  a  full  realization  of  the  great 
work  needful  to  be  done  in  bringing  these  two  interests  into  better 
relations  with  each  other — their  natural  relations  of  friendly  coopera- 
tion— and  to  inspire  them  with  that  sense  of  "  nobleness  "  which  shall 
move  them  to  the  accomplishment  of  it.  There  is  surely  more  honor 
in  the  attainment  of  this  end  than  in  a  silent  seat  in  the  halls  of  legis- 
lation, state  or  national.  It  is  an  achievement  worthy  the  ambition  of 
any  man,  however  great  in  intellect  or  learning  he  may  be. 

The  adoption  of  the  plan  I  have  outlined,  or  of  some  other  by 
which  the  cost  and  other  terms  of  labor  in  business  affairs  can  be 
determined  in  advance  and  rendered  certain  for  a  reasonable  period 
of  time,  is,  I  firmly  believe,  a  fundamental  condition  of  permanent 
peaceful  relations  between  wage-earners  and  their  employers,  includ- 
ing those  who  are  in  control  of  the  operations  of  railroads.  Skilled 
and  unskilled  laborers  have  discovered  that  there  is  strength  in  union — 
in  organized  cooperation — for  the  accomplishment  of  the  ends  desired 
by  them.  They  are  not  likely  to  abandon  the  idea.  It  is  not  the 
interest  either  of  the  employing  class  or  the  general  public  to  antago- 
nize them  in  this,  but  is  equally  the  interest  of  both,  and  of  laborers  as 
well,  that  they  should  be  sp  organized  under  and  in  pursuance  of  a 
law  wisely  framed,  with  due  regard,  in  its  provisions,  for  the  interests, 
rights,  and  duties  of  all  concerned.  As  I  have  already  said,  the  wages 
and  other  terms  of  the  railway  service  must  be  the  subject  of  agree- 
ment between  the  company  and  its  men.  Such  agreements  can  be 
more  readily  made,  and  will  be  much  more  likely  to  be  performed  by 
the  laborer,   if  made   in   his  behalf  by  and  through  a  corporation  of 


PREVENTION  AND  CONTROL  OF  STRIKES.  10 1 

which  he  is  a  member,  and  better  security  for  his  fulfillment  of  an 
agreement  can  be  obtained  in  this  way  if  the  organic  act  of  incorpora- 
tion has  embodied  in  it  the  proper  remedial  provisions. 

This  belief  should,  I  think,  be  sought  through  the  state  legislatures, 
and  not  through  congress.  It  is  possible  that  congress  has  power  to 
enact  a  general  law  for  the  incorporation  of  wage-earners  who  are 
engaged  in  work  connected  with  interstate  commerce,  but  it  is  not 
necessary  nor  desirable  that  it  should  do  so.  The  subject  can  be  more 
comprehensively  dealt  with  by  the  states. 

It  may  be  urged  as  an  objection  to  the  statutory  recognition  of  these 
labor  combinations,  that  they  are  equivalent  in  respect  of  the  cost  of 
labor  to  the  so-called  trusts  and  monopolies  in  business  affairs,  which 
it  has  become  so  popular  of  late  to  decry,  and  against  which  we  have 
recently  had  such  a  shower  of  state  legislation  and  some  national. 
And  so  they  undoubtedly  are.  If  the  space  limited  for  this  paper  did 
not  forbid,  it  would  be  a  pleasant  task  to  meet  this  objection.  Under 
the  circumstances,  I  will  only  say  that  the  law  of  competition,  a 
devotion  to  which  constitutes  the  basis  of  the  objection,  as  it  does  of 
all  the  anti-trust  movement  referred  to,  is  in  my  opinion  a  fetich  of  bar- 
barism, which  the  world  is  rapidly  outgrowing.  The  tendency  of 
evolution  is  away  from  and  out  of  it.  Cooperation  is  the  word  which 
embodies  the  idea  that  is  to  succeed  it. 

But  from  this  point  there  is  a  radical  difference  between  the  rail- 
way employe  in  his  relation  to  the  business  he  is  serving,  and  the 
wage-earner  generally  in  other  departments  of  labor.  The  latter  may 
be  permitted  more  freedom  to  disregard  his  contracts  of  service  than 
is  consistent  with  the  public  interest  in  the  case  of  the  former. 

Railway  companies  hold  a  peculiar  relation  to  the  public.  They 
are  what  the  law  books  term  quasi-public  corporations.  Their  primary 
duty  is  to  the  public.  A  railroad,  when  built,  together  with  its  loco- 
motives, cars,  and  all  other  property  necessary  to  the  use  of  the 
company  in  its  business,  is  permanently  dedicated  to  the  public  service. 
The  corporation  must  operate  it  so  long  as  the  road  will  pay  the  cost 
of  operation,  even  though  it  does  not  yield  one  dollar  to  the  share- 
holders. The  business  cannot  be  discontinued,  as  in  the  case  of 
unremunerative  private  enterprises.  The  rails  cannot  be  taken  up  and 
sold.  The  public  is  entitled  to  the  use  of  the  railroad,  even  though  its 
continued  operation  results  in  a  total  loss  to  the  capital  invested. 
The  only  right  of  the  owners  of  the  property  is  to  the  surplus  of 
earnings  over  operating  expenses.  Trains  for  carrying  freight  and 
passengers  must  be  run,  and  the  public  must  be  impartially  and  faith- 
fully served. 

This  being  the  situation  and  duty  of  a  railway  company,  under  the 
law,  and  it  being  manifest  that  this  duty  can  only  be  performed  through 
the  agency  of  men  in  its  service,  the  logical  inference  would  seem  to  be 
that  the  obligation  of  the  men  while  in  the  service  and  for  the  term 
agreed  upon,  must  be  coextensive  in  kind  with  that  of  the  corporation. 
And  so  it  is  believed  the  law  will  be  adjudged  to  be,  whenever  the  ques- 
tion is  properly  raised  either  in  the  state  or  national  courts. 

While  the  jurisdiction  and  common  law  power  of  the  courts  to  en- 
force this  obligation  of  railway  employes  may  enable  them  to  do  a  great 
deal — much  more  than  has  been  generally  supposed,  I  think — in  pro- 


I02  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

tection  of  railway  companies  and  the  public  from  the  obstructive 
methods  of  these  employes,  which,  at  times  in  the  past,  have  been 
attended  with  such  great  and  irreparable  loss,  the  matter  should  be  made 
the  subject  of  national  legislation.  The  public  interest  demands  it.  It 
is  a  reproach  to  our  lawmakers  that  the  relations  between  railway  com- 
panies and  their  employes,  and  the  duties  of  the  latter,  have  not  long 
before  this  been  specifically  defined  and  regulated  by  statute. 

This  subject  properly  belongs  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
under  its  constitutional  power  "to  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  na- 
tions and  among  the  several  states."  It  cannot  be  adequately  dealt 
with  by  the  states.  One  uniform  system  of  legislation  is  essential. 
There  are  but  few  railway  companies  within  the  United  States  that 
are  not  subject,  in  this  respect,  to  congressional  interference  and 
control. 

What  the  scope  and  character  of  the  powers  of  Congress  are,  in 
respect  of  this  matter,  will  sufficiently  appear  in  the  following  extracts 
from  judgments  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  : 

It  was  said  by  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  in  Gibbons  vs.  Ogden,  that 
"  This  power,  like  all  others  vested  in  Congress,  is  complete  in  itself, 
may  be  exercised  to  its  utmost  extent,  and  acknowledges  no  limitations 
other  than  are  prescribed  in  the  Constitution.  *  *  *  If,  as  has 
always  been  understood,  the  sovereignty  of  Congress,  though  limited  to 
specified  objects,  is  plenary  as  to  those  objects,  the  power  over  com- 
merce with  foreign  nations,  and  among  the  several  states,  is  vested  in 
Congress  as  absolutely  as  it  would  be  in  a  single  government,"  etc. 

In  the  case  of  the  United  States  vs.  Coombs  (12  Peters),  the  court, 
speaking  of  this  power,  said  :  "  It  does  not  stop  at  the  mere  boundary 
line  of  a  state,  nor  is  it  confined  to  acts  done  on  the  water,  or  in  the 
necessary  course  of  the  navigation  thereof.  It  extends  to  such  acts 
done  on  land,  which  interfere  with,  obstruct,  or  prevent  the  due  exercise 
of  the  power  to  regulate  commerce  and  navigation  with  foreign  nations, 
and  among  the  states.  Any  offense  which  thus  interferes  with, 
obstructs,  or  prevents  such  commerce  and  navigation,  though  done  on 
land,  may  be  punished  by  Congress  under  its  general  authority  to  make 
all  laws  necessary  and  proper  to  execute  their  delegated  constitutional 
powers." 

In  Gloucester  Ferry  Company  vs.  Pennsylvania  (114  U.  S.)  it  was 
said  :  "Commerce  among  the  states  consists  of  intercourse  and  traffic 
between  their  citizens,  and  includes  the  transportation  of  persons  and 
property,  and  the  navigation  of  public  waters  for  that  purpose,  as  well 
as  the  purchase,  sale,  and  exchange  of  commodities.  The  power  to 
regulate  that  commerce,  as  well  as  commerce  with  foreign  nations, 
vested  in  Congress,  is  the  power  to  prescribe  the  rules  by  which  it  shall 
be  governed,  that  is,  the  conditions  upon  which  it  shall  be  conducted ; 
to  determine  when  it  shall  be  free  and  when  subject  to  duties  or  other 
exactions.  The  power  also  embraces  within  its  control  all  the  instru- 
mentalities by  which  that  commerce  may  be  carried  on,  and  the  means 
by  which  it  may  be  aided  and  encouraged.  The  subjects,  therefore, 
upon  which  the  power  may  be  exerted,  are  of  infinite  variety." 

In  Pensacola  Telegraph  Company  vs.  Western  Union  Telegraph 
Company  (96  U.  S.  9),  the  court,  referring  to  the  powers  of  Congress 
under  this  grant,  said:     "They  keep   pace  with  the   progress  of  the 


PREVENTION  AND  CONTROL  OF  STRIKES.  103 

country,  and  adapt  themselves  to  the  new  developments  of  time  and 
circumstances.  They  extend  from  the  horse  with  its  rider  to  the  stage 
coach,  from  the  sailing  vessel  to  the  steamboat,  from  the  coach  and  the 
steamboat  to  the  railroad,  and  from  the  railroad  to  the  telegraph,  as 
these  new  agencies  are  successively  brought  into  use  to  meet  the 
demands  of  increasing  population  and  wealth.  They  were  intended  for 
the  government  or  the  business  to  which  they  relate  at  all  times  and 
under  all  circumstances." 

In  the  case  of  the  "Daniel  Ball"  (10  Wall.  557),  Justice  Field,  in 
reply  to  the  contention  that  the  vessel  was  not  engaged  in  interstate 
commerce  because  running  only  between  points  in  the  same  state,  said : 
"  So  far  as  she  was  employed  in  transporting  goods  destined  for  other 
states,  or  goods  brought  from  without  the  limits  of  Michigan  and 
destined  to  places  within  that  state,  she  was  engaged  in  commerce 
between  the  states.  *  *  *  *  Whenever  a  commodity  has  begun 
to  move  as  an  article  of  trade  from  one  state  to  another,  commerce  in 
that  commodity  between  the  states  has  commenced." 

Through  this  grant  of  power  to  regulate  commerce,  the  court  has 
said,  "  The  whole  merchant  marine  of  the  country  was  placed  under  the 
control  of  Congress." 

In  Gilman  vs.  Philadelphia  (3  Wall.  713),  it  was  said  :  "Wherever 
*  commerce  among  the  states '  goes,  the  power  of  the  nation,  as  repre- 
sented in  this  court,  goes  with  it,  to  protect  and  enforce  its  rights." 

In  the  County  of  Mobile  vs.  Kimball  (102  U.  S.),  the  court  says: 
"  That  power  is,  indeed,  without  limitation.  It  authorizes  Congress  to 
prescribe  the  conditions  upon  which  commerce  in  all  its  forms  shall  be 
conducted  between  our  citizens  and  the  citizens  or  subjects  of  other 
countries,  and  between  the  citizens  of  the  several  states,  and  to  adopt 
measures  to  promote  its  growth  and  insure  its  safety." 

In  Sherlock  vs.  Ailing  (93  U.  S.),  it  was  said  :  "  It  is  true  that  the 
commercial  power  conferred  by  the  Constitution  is  one  without  limita- 
tion. It  authorizes  legislation  with  respect  to  all  the  subjects  of  foreign 
and  interstate  commerce,  the  persons  engaged  in  it,  and  the  instruments 
by  which  it  is  carried  on." 

In  Nashville,  etc.,  Ry.  Co.  vs.  Alabama  (128  U.  S.),  the  validity  of 
a  state  statute  which  provided  for  the  examination  of  engineers  with 
reference  to  color-blindness,  was  questioned  on  the  ground  of  the 
exclusive  right  of  Congress  to  regulate  such  matters  where  the  railway 
company  was  engaged  in  interstate  commerce.  The  court  said:  "  It  is 
conceded  that  the  power  of  Congress  to  regulate  interstate  commerce 
is  plenary  ;  that,  as  incident  to  it,  Congress  may  legislate  as  to  the  quali- 
fications, duties,  and  liabilities  of  employes  and  others  on  railway  trains 
engaged  in  that  commerce  ;  and  that  such  legislation  will  supersede  any 
state  action  on  the  subject." 

These  cases  conclusively  show  that  the  power  of  Congress  is  coex- 
tensive with  the  exigencies  and  needs  of  the  commerce  involved. 

As  illustrative  of  the  kind  of  control  which  Congress  may  exercise 
over  the  instrumentalites  of  commerce  by  land,  including  the  services 
of  persons  employed  in  the  work  of  transportation,  it  will  aid  us  to  see 
what  has  been  done  in  this  regard  respecting  water  commerce,  remem- 
bering that  the  source  of  authority  of  Congress  over  the  former  is  the 


I04  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

same  as  that  over  the  latter,  namely,  its  constitutional  power  to  regulate 
commerce. 

The  following,  among  other  things,  have  been  embraced  and  pro- 
vided for  by  the  laws  of  Congress  : 

Masters,  mates  and  engineers  of  steam  vessels  are  required  to  have 
a  license. 

A  licensed  officer  of  a  vessel  who  wrongfully  or  unreasonably  refuses 
to  serve,  may  have  his  license  revoked. 

Masters  of  vessels  for  a  foreign  voyage  are  required  to  have  written 
or  printed  contracts  with  each  member  of  the  crew,  specifying  the 
duration  of  voyage,  etc. 

A  similar  contract  is  required  with  the  crew  of  vessels  engaged  in 
the  coasting  trade. 

These  contracts  are  required  to  specify  the  hour  when  the  seaman 
shall  "render  himself  on  board"  the  vessel,  and  the  seaman  is  made 
liable  to  a  forfeiture  of  one  day's  wages  for  every  hour's  absence  after 
the  time  specified ;  if  he  deserts,  or  wholly  fails  to  appear,  he  is  liable 
to  a  penalty. 

After  inspection  and  approval  of  a  vessel  which  seamen  have  pro- 
nounced unseaworthy,  if  they  refuse  to  serve,  they  are  liable  to 
imprisonment  until  they  have  paid  a  prescribed  penalty. 

The  penalty  for  desertion  is  imprisonment  for  three  months.  For 
refusing  to  join  the  vessel  or  to  proceed  on  the  voyage,  or  for  absence 
from  the  vessel  or  from  duty  without  sufficient  reason,  the  seaman  is 
liable  to  imprisonment  one  month  and  the  forfeiture  of  wages. 

For  disobedience  of  any  lawful  order  or  command,  he  may  be 
imprisoned  for  two  months.  And  for  continued  willful  disobedience  of 
any  lawful  command,  or  continued  willful  neglect  of  duty,  he  may  be 
imprisoned  for  six  months. 

For  a  combination  with  others  of  the  crew  to  disobey  lawful  com- 
mands or  neglect  of  duty,  or  to  impede  navigation  of  the  vessel  or 
progress  of  the  voyage,  he  is  subject  to  imprisonment  for  the  period  of 
twelve  months. 

For  willfully  causing  any  injury  to  the  vessel  or  cargo,  he  is  punish- 
able by  imprisonment  for  one  year,  while  mutiny  or  revolt  subjects  the 
offender  to  five  years'  imprisonment  and  a  fine  of  one  thousand  dollars. 
The  usurpation  of  the  command  of  a  vessel  is  punishable  by  ten  years' 
imprisonment  and  a  fine  of  two  thousand  dollars. 

All  water  craft  above  a  certain  tonnage  capacity  are  required  to  be 
inspected  and  to  have  a  license ;  and  rules  of  navigation  are  prescribed 
for  them,  having  reference  to  the  protection  of  the  traffic  carried  and 
the  lives  of  the  passengers  and  crew. 

These  statutory  laws  also  contain  full  and  ample  provisions  for  pro- 
tecting the  crew  against  imposition  and  abuses  by  the  owners  and 
officers  of  vessels. 

These  enactments  are  so  suggestive  of  what  Congress  may  do  to  save 
railway  companies  and  the  public  from  the  fearfully  serious  effect  of 
railroad  strikes,  that  it  hardly  seems  necessary  to  further  indicate  its 
power  over  this  subject. 

Bear  in  mind  that  the  mainspring  for  all  this  legislation  has  been 
the  interest  of  commerce,  of  trade  and  traffic,  among  our  own  people 
and  between  thern  and  the  people  of  foreign  nations,  and  that  it  is  now 


PREVENTION  AND  CONTROL  OF  STRIKES.  105 

settled  beyond  the  possibility  of  a  doubt,  by  the  supreme  authority  of 
the  nation  in  such  questions,  that  there  is  no  distinction  between  com- 
merce by  water  and  commerce  by  land,  in  respect  of  the  exercise  by 
Congress  of  the  constitutional  power  by  virtue  of  which  these  laws  were 
passed. 

Why,  then,  should  not  Congress  promptly  come  to  the  relief  of  land 
commerce  in  this  matter  ?  There  exist  the  same  reasons,  so  far  as  the 
commerce  is  concerned,  for  extending  these  provisions  of  the  marine 
law  to  railway  companies  and  their  employes,  that  originally  called 
for  their  enactment  as  to  water  carriers  and  their  employes,  and  now 
justify  their  continuance  on  the  statute  book.  Commerce  by  railroad 
is  as  sacred  as  commerce  by  water.  Its  interruption  for  a  day  or  a 
week,  by  the  willful  combined  action  of  employes  who  abandon  the 
service,  in  violation  of  contract  duty,  either  express  or  implied,  and,  by 
threats  and  assaults,  intimidate  others  from  taking  their  places,  is 
followed  by  the  same  pecuniary  consequences  in  kind,  and  in  the  same 
interests,  as  a  similar  interruption  of  commerce  on  the  water  by  the 
mutiny  of  a  crew.  If  protection  against  the  latter  is  justifiable  or 
necessary,  protection  against  the  former  is  equally  so. 

It  should  be  added  that  the  power  of  Congress  in  this  matter  is  not 
limited  simply  to  the  regulation  of  the  instrumentalities  used  in  inter- 
state and  international  commerce.  As  an  incident  of  its  power  to 
protect  commerce  which  is  within  the  jurisdiction  of  national  legisla- 
tion, it  is  held  to  be  the  right  of  Congress  to  impose  duties  in  respect 
of  commerce  which  is  confined  to  a  single  state.  This  opens  a  wide 
field  for  its  control,  in  the  relations  between  railway  companies  and 
their  employes,  as  in  other  things  connected  with  the  operation  of  rail- 
roads. Broadly  speaking,  it  may  be  safely  affirmed  that  Congress  may 
by  law  impose  any  duty  or  prohibit  any  act  which  is  necessary  to  secure 
or  promote  the  efficient  service  of  the  carrier  in  the  transportation  of 
traffic  between  the  states  and  between  the  United  States  and  foreign 
nations ;  and  that  this  power  extends  to  railway  companies  lying 
entirely  within  one  state,  if  they  are  engaged  in  interstate  commerce 
within  the  ruling  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  case  of  the  "  Daniel 
Ball,"  to  which  I  have  referred. 

The  complete  remedy,  then,  for  railway  strikes,  so  far  as  it  is  possi- 
ble for  the  law  to  supply  a  remedy,  is  clearly  within  the  power  of 
Congress,  and  the  path  of  it  is  a  beaten  one.  It  involves  no  new  and 
untried  theory  —  only  an  extension  of  the  protective  arm  of  the  govern- 
ment over  the  whole  commerce  of  the  country  within  its  jurisdiction, 
instead  of  confining  it,  as  is  mostly  the  case  at  present,  to  commerce  by 
water.  Governmental  protection  of  the  latter  in  the  particular  under 
consideration,  is  nearly  as  old  as  the  government  itself.  Time  and 
experience  have  proved  the  wisdom  of  it.  Let  us  now  have  the  same 
measure  of  protection  granted  to  the  enormous  commerce  carried  by 
the  railroads.  This  railway  commerce,  both  in  quantity  and  value,  is 
very  great.  So  far  as  this  consideration  should  have  any  weight  in 
determining  the  action  of  Congress  in  the  premises,  there  is  at  least, 
equal  reason  for  its  regulation  and  control  with  that  for  the  regulation 
of  commerce  by  water. 

There  was  a  mild  recognition  in  the  interstate  commerce  law  of 
the  propriety  and  necessity  of  some  legislation  on  this  subject.     It  is 


io6  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

there  provided,  as  an  incident  of  the  duty  imposed  on  railway  com- 
panies to  accept  and  carry  traffic  without  discrimination,  that  their 
agents  and  employes  shall  be  punishable  for  willfully  neglecting  or 
refusing  to  perform  any  function  devolving  upon  them  in  respect  of 
this.  Judges  Taft  and  Ricks,  in  the  famous  Ann  Arbor  case,  were 
called  upon  to  apply  and  enforce  the  appropriate  legal  remedy  against 
railway  employes  under  this  provision  ;  and  for  the  faithful  and  fearless 
discharge  of  this  duty  they  were  rewarded  with  much  flippant  and 
foolish  adverse  criticism  by  some  of  the  newspapers  of  the  country. 
But  while  this  provision  of  the  interstate  commerce  law  is  in  the 
right  direction,  it  falls  far  short  of  the  full  measure  of  relief  which  the 
situation  demands.  The  protection  to  commerce,  which  is  the  aim  and 
purpose  of  the  provision,  and  constitutes  the  reason  of  its  embodiment 
in  the  law,  cannot  be  adequately  secured  under  it.  Further  legislation 
is  imperatively  necessary,  if  the  policy  expressed  in  this  provision  of 
the  act  is  to  continue  and  be  carried  forward  to  the  measure  of  relief 
which  Congress  has  the  power  to  afford,  and  the  conditions  require. 

Railway  companies  employed  in  commerce  with  foreign  nations  or 
among  the  states,  should  be  required  to  make  written  agreements  with 
their  employes  in  every  departments,  covering  all  the  terms  of  service, 
including  a  definite  period  of  time.  While  it  would  greatly  facilitate 
the  making  of  these  agreements  and  simplify  the  business  relations 
between  the  companies  and  the  employes  to  have  the  employes  of  each 
distinct  department  organized  into  a  corporation  under  a  wisely  pre- 
pared law,  this  may  not  be  necessary  to  the  plan.  It  may  be 
practicable  to  secure  a  separate  agreement  with  each  employe.  This 
will  depend  in  existing  conditions  on  the  action  of  the  associations  of 
which  the  men  are  members.  Such  an  agreement  being  made,  similar 
statutory  provisions  to  those  now  existing  which  prescribe  the  duties 
of  employes  on  vessels  engaged  in  commerce,  should  be  enacted  in 
respect  of  railway  companies  and  their  employes.  The  remedy  should, 
be  as  broad  as  the  evil.  The  law  should,  therefore,  embrace  all  rail- 
way employes  in  every  department  of  the  service — the  mechanic  who 
repairs  the  engines  and  the  cars,  the  switchmen  and  others  who  have 
any  duty  to  perform  in  connection  with  the  movement  of  the  power 
or  rolling  stock  of  the  company,  the  men  engaged  in  handling  freight, 
in  loading  it  into  or  in  discharging  it  from  cars,  or  in  receiving  it  into  or 
delivering  it  from  the  carrier's  warehouse  :  and  it  should  also  embrace  all 
persons  who  handle  or  carry  the  freight  between  the  carrier  and  the  ship- 
per or  consignee.  It  may,  and  properly  should,  go  one  step  further  and 
provide  that  any  act  of  persons  not  in  the  service  of  a  railway  company 
in  aid  or  abetment  of  others  in  obstructing  this  commerce,  shall  be 
punishable  even  more  severely  than  a  similar  act  of  the  employes  them- 
selves. A  great  part  of  the  embarrassment  heretofore  experienced  by 
railway  companies  for  strikes  has  come  from  the  interference  of  an 
outside  lawless  element.  Persons  of  this  worthless  and  idle  class  of  the 
community  are  usually  guilty  of  the  acts  of  vandalism  of  which  we 
hear  in  connection  with  railway  strikes,  and  not  the  railway  employes. 

In  connection  with  this  legislation  and  as  germain  to  the  same  sub- 
ject matter,  Congress  should  prescribe  the  duties  of  railway  companies 
to  their  employes  in  respect  of  devices  and  appliances  for  protecting 


PREVENTION  AND  CONTROL  OF  STRIKES.  107 

them  from  personal  injuries,  etc.  The  subject  is  clearly  within  the 
province  of  the  national  legislature.  In  recognition  of  this  an  act  was 
passed  near  the  close  of  the  last  Congress  which  makes  it  incumbent  on 
railway  companies  to  equip  their  engines  and  cars  with  automatic 
couplers  and  power  brakes  within  a  prescribed  period  of  time.  This 
was  for  the  protection  of  employes.  Other  and  further  legislation  in  the 
same  interest  may  be  necessary.  Congress  having  the  undoubted 
power  to  cover  the  entire  field  involving  the  reciprocal  rights  and 
duties  of  railway  companies  and  their  employes,  and  of  the  duties  of 
both  to  the  public,  should  unhesitatingly  and  promptly  exercise  it. 

The  suggestion  of  the  legislation  here  advocated  will  no  doubt  be 
met  in  some  quarters  with  the  familiar  cry  of  "  un-Jeffersonian," 
"  un-American,"  etc.  It  will  be  called  an  unjust  interference  with 
the  liberty  of  the  citizen.  We  are  in  grave  danger  in  this  country  of 
forgetting  that  there  is  a  distinction  between  unlimited  license  of  con- 
duct, and  liberty  of  conduct  under  law.  The  former  is  anarchy,  the 
latter  is  government.  "  Each  for  all  and  all  for  each,"  expresses 
the  true  relation  between  the  individual  American  citizen  and  the 
organized  whole  of  the  government.  The  limit  of  the  liberty  of  each 
can  only  be  ascertained  by  a  due  consideration  of  the  well-being  of 
all.  The  interests  which  are  dependent  upon  the  prompt  and  unob- 
structed movement  of  the  railway  traffic  of  the  United  States  are  many 
and  great.  Wage-earners  in  thousands  of  other  fields  of  industry  are 
dependent  upon  it,  as  will  be  apparent  to  anyone  who  reflects  upon 
the  subject.  All  branches  and  kinds  of  industry  rely  upon  these  arti- 
ficial channels  of  commerce,  not  only  for  the  material  used  by  them, 
and  for  reaching  the  market  with  their  products,  but  in  a  vast  majority 
of  cases,  for  the  food  of  their  operatives  and  workmen.  How  long 
could  the  people  of  most  of  the  great  cities  of  this  country  live  with 
all  railway  communication  cut  off  ?  These  business  centers  of  the 
interior  have  been  made  by  the  railroads,  and  their  continued  existence 
is  literally  dependent  upon  them. 

The  railway  employe  is,  therefore,  not  the  only  wage-earner  who 
is  deeply  interested  in  this  matter ;  the  wage-earners  alone  in  other 
fields  of  industry  throughout  the  United  States,  who  vastly  outnumber, 
in  the  aggregate,  the  total  number  engaged  in  the  railway  service, 
have  a  direct  and  profound  interest  in  it.  And  sooner  or  later,  if  the 
disturbance  of  railway  traffic  from  these  strikes  continue,  these  other 
wage  earners,  and  the  people  at  large  as  well,  are  destined  to  have  a 
serious  awakening  to  their  interest  in  this  question.  It  is  asserted 
that  railway  companies  have  made  all  the  concessions  to  their  employes, 
in  the  way  of  wages,  that  the  business  will  bear.  If  further  exactions 
come  in  this  direction,  I  predict  that  they  will  not  be  yielded  to,  even 
though  the  alternative  be  a  total  suspension  of  the  train  service. 
What  this  would  mean  to  the  public,  if  such  action  should  involve  a 
considerable  number  of  railroads,  as  it  may,  and  only  a  few  months 
since  came  very  near  doing,  is  too  apparent  to  require  stating.  Every 
intelligent,  thinking  person  must  see  that  there  exists  a  public  necessity 
of  overwhelming  magnitude  and  importance  for  the  unobstructed  flow 
of  this  railway  commerce ;  and  it  follows  that  the  men  who  are 
engaged  in  this  quasi-public  service  should  be  compelled  to  surrender 


lo8  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

something  of  that  measure  of  personal  freedom  of  action  which  may 
properly  be  left  to  them  in  other  employments.  They  may  not  under 
normal  conditions  be  forced  into  the  service,  but,  having  voluntarily 
entered  it,  they  must  comply  with  such  terms  as  the  public  character 
of  the  business  reasonably  imposes.  This  requirement  is  not  unjust, 
nor  is  it  "  un-American."  It  is  simply  a  necessary  incident  of  the 
business. 

The  final,  but  by  no  means  least  important,  question,  is,  can  this 
relief  be  obtained  from  Congress  ?  I  have  not  the  gift  of  prophecy,  but 
it  may  be  confidently  asserted,  I  think,  that  this  will  depend  on  whether 
the  members  of  the  national  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  can 
be  made  to  see  that  a  majority  of  the  people  desire  it.  A  vigorous 
opposition  may  be  expected  from  the  employes  of  railway  companies. 
Members  of  Congress  will  be  made  to  feel  their  influence.  These  em- 
ployes have  the  power  of  the  ballot,  and  this,  with  the  average  American 
politician,  is  as  potent  a  weapon  for  controlling  his  actions  on  legisla- 
tive measures  as  the  sword  in  the  hand  of  the  tyrant  ever  was.  His 
first  and  last  thought  is.  What  will  be  the  effect  of  this  upon  my  tenure 
of  office  ? 

In  these  conditions,  the  only  hope  lies  in  an  organized  and  system- 
atic effort  to  enlighten  the  popular  mind.  That  part  of  the  public  not 
engaged  in  the  railway  service — merchants,  manufacturers,  shippers  of 
all  classes,  and  laborers  in  all  other  branches  of  industry^ — must  be 
made  to  see  and  feel  the  great  interest  they  have  in  the  regular  and  un- 
obstructed movement  of  railway  traffic.  When  this  great  mass  of 
voters  shall  fully  realize  their  interest  in  this,  the  prompt  action  of  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  in  enacting  the  needed  law  will  be 
assured,  for  then,  in  each  congressional  district,  the  majority  will  be 
unquestionably  found  on  that  side. 

This  may  seem  to  some  like  a  forlorn  hope,  but  not  so  to  me. 
Popular  education  in  matters  of  this  kind  is  often  very  rapid.  Litera- 
ture can  do  much.  The  newspapers  are  a  great  educational  agency. 
I  do  not  believe  that  I  am  over  sanguine  in  asserting  that  nineteen- 
iwentieths  of  the  daily  press  can  be  convinced  of  the  essential  justice 
and  imperative  importance  of  this  congressional  legislation,  and  induced 
to  advocate  it.  Pamphlets  should  be  written  on  the  subject,  and  steps 
taken  to  circulate  them  thoroughly  among  all  classes,  briefly  and  plainly 
pointing  out  the  reasons  for  the  legislation  desired.  This  work  is  very 
likely  to  be  supplemented  by  events  which  will  greatly  aid  the  educa- 
tional process.  Further  railway  strikes  are  sure  to  come,  based  on 
demands  for  higher  wages.  If  it  be  true,  as  it  is  believed  to  be,  that 
these  railway  companies  are  not  in  a  financial  condition  to  warrant  an 
advance  of  wages,  let  them  simply  refuse,  and  accept  the  inevitable 
result  of  a  suspension  of  the  operation  of  the  road,  if  a  strike  involves 
this.  A  very  few  days  of  the  public  experience  of  this,  on  a  large  scale, 
would  be  the  equivalent,  in  immediate  educational  effect  with  the  peo- 
ple, of  a  generation  of  discussion. 

In  the  Ann  Arbor  case  to  which  I  have  referred.  Judge  Ricks  says: 
"  These  cars  carry  the  product  of  factories  whose  output  must  be  speed- 
ily carried  away  to  keep  their  employes  in  labor.  The  suspension  of 
work  on  the  line  of  such  a  vast  railroad  *  *  * .  would  paralyze  the 
business  of  the  entire  country,  entailing  losses  and  bringing  disaster  to 


SAFEG  UA  RDS  A  GAINST  A  CCI DENTS.  i  o  9 

thousands  of  unoffending  citizens.  Contracts  would  be  broken,  perish- 
able property  destroyed,  the  traveling  public  embarrassed,  and  injur- 
ies sustained  too  many  and  too  vast  to  be  enumerated." 

It  is  only  necessary  to  bring  the  great  general  public  to  a  keen  real- 
ization of  all  this  to  insure  legislative  relief,  and  this  can  be  accom- 
plished by  concert  of  action  and  vigorous  effort  on  the  part  of  the 
railway  companies. 


RAILWAY    ACCIDENTS;    THEIR    CAUSES    AND   THE    PRAC- 
TICABLE SAFEGUARDS  AGAINST  THEM. 


H.  S.    HAINES,  VICE-PRESIDENT   THE    PLANT   RAILWAY    SYSTEM;    PRESI- 
DENT   THE    AMERICAN    RAILWAY    ASSOCIATION. 


I  have  been  requested  to  prepare  for  the  Railway  Commerce  Con- 
gress, a  paper  upon  "  Railway  accidents ;  their  causes  and  practicable 
safeguards  against  them." 

In  seeking  the  causes  of  railway  train  accidents,  they  may  be  vari- 
ously classified  as  between  those  for  which  the  railway  corporations  may 
properly  be  held  responsible  as  due  to  defects  in  track,  in  equipment  or 
in  regulations,  and  those  for  which  they  should  not  be  held  responsible 
because  beyond  their  control ;  as  when  proximately  caused  by  obstruc- 
tions, by  malice,  by  negligence,  or  by  disobedience  of  orders. 

The  personal  injuries  resulting  from  train  accidents  may  be  classi- 
fied as  affecting  passengers,  or  employes,  or  trespassers,  or  persons  right- 
fully on  the  railway  tracks  or  grounds,  and  there  is  a  class  of  personal 
injuries  by  trains  which  cannot  be  included  in  railway  train  accidents, 
as  occurring  at  road  crossings,  or  where  employes  fall  from  trains,  or 
are  injured  in  coupling. 

In  the  discussion  of  practicable  safeguards  against  train  accidents 
something  should  be  determined  as  to  their  relative  frequency  as  attrib- 
utable to  the  several  causes  to  which  they  are  due. 

The  official  report  of  the  interstate  commerce  commission  and  of 
the  Massachusetts  railroad  commission  refer  only  to  those  accidents 
from  which  personal  injuries  resulted.  The  Railroad  Gazette  has  for 
many  years  published  monthly  and  annual  statistics  of  train  accidents 
in  this  country,  grouped  as  to  their  character  and  cause. 

In  an  editorial  article  on  train  accidents  in  1892,  published  in 
February  last,  there  is  a  tabulated  statement  of  this  kind  covering  the 
past  twenty  years.  These  statistics  are  necessarily  based  upon  insufTfi- 
cient  data,  mainly  from  newspaper  items ;  but  though  confessedly 
incomplete,  this  is  all  that  is  available  for  the  purpose.  In  this  state- 
ment the  accidents  are  compared  in  periods  of  five  years,  beginning 
with  1873  and  extending  to  1892,  giving  the  averages  per  annum  in 
each  period  ;  those  in  the  year  1892  being  also  classified  separately. 
The  classification  is  under  the  three  general  heads  of  collisions,  derail- 
ments, and  accidents  neither  collisions  nor  derailments.  Then  these 
general  heads  have  been  subdivided  with  reference  to  the  specific 
causes  so  far  as  ascertained. 


no 


WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 


From  these  statistics  I  have  prepared  two  tables,  as  follows  : 

Table  A;  showing  the  percentage  of  each  class  of  accidents  to  the 
total  number  per  annum  as  averaged  in  each  period. 

Table  B  ;  showing 

First.  The  average  number  of  each  class  of  accidents  in  propor- 
tion to  the  number  of  millions  of  revenue  train  miles. 

Second.  The  average  number  of  millions  of  revenue  train  miles  to 
each  class  of  accidents. 

The  information  as  to  revenue  train  miles  has  only  been  obtained 
for  the  periods  1883  to  1887,  1888  to  1892,  and  for  the  year  1892. 

TABLE  A. 

Railroad  Accidents  in  the  United  States,  1873  to  1892. 

From  the  Railroad  Gazette. 


CHARACTER  OF   ACCIDENT. 

ANNUAL  AVERAGE   FOR  PERIOD. 

PERCENTAGE  OF  TOTAL  PER  ANNUM. 

Collisions — 

'73-'77 

'78-'82 

'83-'87 

'88- '92 

1892 

'73-'77 

'78-'82 

'83-'87 

'88-'92 

1892 

Rear     - 

Butting     - 

Crossing  and  Miscell. 

155 

96 

43 

275 
121 
21 

343 
174 
32 

464 
286 
209 

485 

326 

.147 
.091 
.041 

.248 
.109 
.019 

.250 
.126 
.024 

.221 
.136 
.099 

.208 
.108 
.140 

Total  collisions 

294 

417 

549 

959 

1062 

.279 

•376 

.400 

.456 

.456 

Deraihnents  from — 
Defects  of  road 
Defects  of  equipment 
Negligence  in  operating 
Unforeseen  obstructions 
Unexplained     - 

149 

76 

97 
228 

116 
.79 
91 
128 
232 

192 
108 
105 

176 
169 
125 

3^ 

1911 
206 
164 
179 
425 

.147 
.072 
.092 
.150 
.217 

.105 

.116 
.209 

.140 
.078 
.077 

.084 
.080 
.060 

■21 

.082 
.088 
.070 

Total  derailments     - 

708 

646 

748 

1052 

1165! 

.673 

.583 

•545 

.500 

.500 

Accidents  without  col- 
lision or  derailment— 
To  locomotives 
To  cars     - 

Cars  burned  while  run'g 
Other  causes     - 

23 
13 

I 

1 

8 

I 

10 

8 

34 
17 
12 
29 

34 
15 

T3 

38 

.021 
.012 
.009 
.006 

.026 
.007 
.007 
.001 

.028 
.006 

.002 
.001 
.001 
.001 

.002 
.001 
.001 
.001 

collision  or  derailment 

51 

46 

75 

92 

100 

,048 

.041 

.055 

.004 

.004 

Total  train  accidents 
Revenue  train  milage- 
millions 

1053      1109      1372      2103      2327 
570.7     781.2        870 

An  examination  of  Table  A  presents  certain  results  as  follows  : 

1st.  The  total  number  of  accidents  reported  upon  has  doubled  dur- 
ing the  total  period  under  consideration. 

2nd.  Over  one-half  of  these  accidents  are  classified  as  derailments. 

3rd.  The  percentage  of  derailments  per  annum  decreased  from  67 
per  cent  of  the  total  in  the  first  period  to  50  per  cent  in  the  last. 

4th.  The  percentage  of  collisions  per  annum  increased  from  28  per 
cent  of  the  total  in  the  first  period  to  45  per  cent  in  the  last. 

5th.  The  percentage  of  accidents  that  were  neither  collisions  nor 
derailments  has  been  very  small. 


SAFEGUARDS  AGAINST  ACCIDENTS. 


TABLE  B. 

Relative  Frequency  of  Different  Classes  of  Railroad  Accidents  in 
THE  United  States. 


NUMBER  OF  ACCI- 

CHARACTER OF  ACCIDENT. 

DENTS  PER  ONE  MIL- 

TRAIN MILES  RUN  TO  ONE  ACCIDENT. 

LION  TRAIN  MILES. 

Collisions — 

'83-'87 

'88- '92 

1892 

1883-1887 

1888-1892 

1892 

Rear 

.60 

•59 

.56 

1,666,666 

1,694,515 

1,785,714 

Butting        .... 

.30 

.37 

.29 

3>333»333 

2,702,702 

3,448,272 

Crossing  and  Miscellaneous    - 

.06 

.27 

•37 

16,666,666 

3,703,703 

2,702,702 

Total  collisions    - 

.96 

1.23 

1.22 

1,041,625 

812,113 

819,754 

Derailments  from — 

Defects  of  road 

.34 

.23 

.22 

2,94i»i73 

4,347,821 

4,545,454 

Defects  of  equipment  - 

.19 

.22 

•23 

5,263,157 

4,545,454 

4,347,821 

Negligence  m  operating 
Unforeseen  obstructions 

.19 

.16 

.19 

5,263,157 

6,250,000 

5,263,157 

.27 

.25 

.21 

3»703,703 

4,000,000 

4,761,904 

Unexplained  -         -         -         - 

•32 

.49 

.49 

3,125,000 

2,040,816 

2,040,816 

Total  derailments    - 

I-3I 

1-35 

1^34 

763,358 

740,740 

746,268 

Accidents   without  collision    or 

deraihnefit— 

To  locomotives    -         -         - 

.07 

•05 

.04 

14,285,714 

20,000,000 

25,000,000 

To  cars  --.--- 

•03 

.02 

.02 

33,333,333 

50,000,000 

50,000,000 

Cars  burned  while  running  - 

.02 

.02 

.01 

50,000,000 

50,000,009 

100,000,000 

Other  causes  .         -         -         . 

.01 

•03 

.04 

100,000,000 

33,333,333 

25,000,000 

Total  accidents  without  collision  or 
derailment  .... 

•13 

.12 

.11 

7,692,317 

8,  333,333 

9,090,909 

Total  train  accidents 

2.40 

2.70 

2.67 

416,666 

370,370 

374,531 

Train  mileage  in  millions  - 

570-7 

781.2 

870 

In  an  examination  of  Table  B  consideration  will  therefore  be  given 
only  to  collisions  and  derailments.  This  table  has  been  prepared  to 
show  the  relative  probability  of  the  occurrence  of  any  particular  kind 
of  accident  in  proportion  to  the  revenue  train  mileage.  This  can  only 
be  shown  for  two  periods  from  1883  to  1887  and  from  1888  to  1892,  also 
separately  for  1892. 

The  conclusions  to  be  drawn  from  this  table  are  as  follows  : 
First.  The  liability  to  train  accidents  has  somewhat  increased  with 
increasing  train  mileage  ;  as  for  instance,  the  average  distance  run  for 
each  accident  was 

For  the  period  1883- 1887, -       416,666  Miles 

For  the  period  1888-1892, 370,370     " 

This  may  be  due  to  an  increasing  tendency  to  the  publication  of 
such  matters,  and  consequently  to  a  greater  number  proportionately  to 
mileage  being  included  in  the  published  statements,  but  so  far  as  these 
are  reliable,  they  bear  out  the  assertion  that  train  accidents  have  in- 
creased. This  does  not  warrant  the  inference  that  the  number  of  per- 
sonal injuries  has  increased  relatively  to  revenue  train  mileage,  a 
matter  which  will  be  treated  separately. 

Second.  The  increased  liability  to  accidents  has  been  to  collisions 
rather  than  to  derailments;  for  instance 


Period 
1883-1887, 
1888-1892, 


One  Collision  to 
1,041,625  miles, 
-     763,358       " 


One  Derailment  to 
812,113  miles 
700,740     " 


1 1 2  WORLD'S  RAILWA  Y  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

Third.  With  reference  to  collisions  alone  they  are  classified  as  to 
frequency  as  follows  : 

Character                                                                   1883-87  1888-92 

Rear, one  to  1,666,666  miles  1,694,515  miles 

Butting,     -         -         -         -  "     "    3,333,333     "  2,702,702     " 

Crossing  or  miscellaneous,     -  "     "  16,666,666     "  3*703,703     " 

Total,     -         -         -         -         "     "     1,041,625  miles  812,113  miles 

The  proportion  of  rear  collisions  to  train  mileage  has  remained 
about  the  same  from  one  period  to  the  other.  There  has  been  a  slight 
increase  in  butting  collisions,  but  the  great  increase  which  has  princi- 
pally affected  the  total  result,  has  been  in  what  are  termed  "crossing 
or  miscellaneous." 

Fourth.  With  reference  to  derailments  alone  they  are  classified  as 
to  frequency  as  follows  : 

Cause  1883-87  1888-92 

Defects  of  road,     -         -         -     one  to  2,941,173  miles  4,347,821  miles 

Defects  of  equipment,  -  "     "  5,263,157      "  4,545,454      " 

Negligence  in  operating,         -      "     "  5,263,157      "  6,250,000      " 

Unforeseen  obstructions,  -       -    "     "  3,703,703     "  4,000,000      " 

Unexplained,     -,        -  -         -  "     "  3,125,000     "  2,040,816      " 

Total,      -         -         -         -       one  to    763,358  miles  740,740  miles 

The  discussion  of  the  causes  of  derailment  is  made  less  valuable 
because  in  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  accidents  reported  the  cause  is 
not  given.  Referring  alone  to  those  for  which  the  cause  is  given,  the 
relative  frequency  in  proportion  to  train  mileage  has  increased  in  those 
due  to  defects  of  equipment  and  has  decreased  in  those  due  to  defects 
of  roads,  to  negligence  in  operating  and  to  unforeseen  obstructions. 

With  this  general  statement  of  facts  and  conclusions  we  must  en- 
deavor to  discuss  the  practicability  of  remedies,  beginning  with  colli- 
sions, classified  as  rear,  butting  and  crossing  or  miscellaneous.  In  doing 
this  it  is  necessary  to  get  down  to  particulars,  for  which  I  will  con- 
fine myself  in  the  statement  of  1892  as  given  in  the  Railroad  Gazette 
for  each  month  separately. 

In  the  year  1892  the  number  of  collisions  reported  is  as  follows  : 

Number  Per  cent  of  total 

Rear -         -     502  47 

Butting 323  30 

Crossing  and  miscellaneous       .         -         .         .    238  23 

Total         -------       1063 

Of  these  collisions  some  particulars  are  given  as  follows  : 

Total  No.  particularized  Per  cent  of  total 
Rear         -----     502                         230  45 

Butting         -         -         -         -  323  220  68 

Crossing  and  miscellaneous     -       238  64  27 

1063  514  48 

Taking  the  rear  collisions  by  themselves  as  particularized,  the  rear 
train  and  the  forward  train  in  each  can  be  classified  as  follows  : 


SAFEG  UARDS  A  GAINS!  A  CCIDENTS.  1 1 3 

Rear  Train       Forward  Train 

Passenger  train,          -         - 68  39 

Freight  train,          ........  109  112 

Freight  train  parted,            ------  35  27 

Cars  not  in  a  train,         -------         2  31 

Engines  not  in  train,            -.-...              7  g 

Miscellaneous,       --------         9  12 

In  about  one-half  of  these  instances  it  was  a  freight  train  that  either 
ran  into  the  forward  train  or  was  run  into.  This  is  not  surprising  since 
there  are  so  many  more  freight  trains  than  passenger  trains.  Indeed 
the  large  proportion  of  passenger  trains  involved  in  rear  collisions  as 
compared  with  freight  trains  is  more  a  matter  of  surprise,  though  this  is 
to  some  extent  accounted  for  by  the  greater  probability  that  a  passenger 
train  collision  would  become  a  matter  of  notoriety  and  get  into  the 
newspapers.  But  in  these  reported  cases  the  passenger  train  has  been 
the  rear  train  nearly  twice  as  often  as  the  forward  train,  which  can  be 
accounted  for  by  its  greater  speed  as  tending  to  make  it  both  more  diffi- 
cult to  prevent  a  rear  collision  when  the  passenger  train  was  following, 
and  more  easy  for  the  forward  train  to  escape  from  impending  collision 
when  the  passenger  train  was  ahead. 

In  cases  where  a  freight  train  parted  a  collision  between  the  two 
parts  appears  in  this  statement  as  both  the  rear  and  the  forward  trains. 
In  some  cases  the  rear  portion  of  a  parted  train  appears  as  the  forward 
train  where  it  has  been  run  into  by  a  following  train,  and  in  a  few 
instances  as  the  rear  train  where  it  has  rolled  back  down  a  grade  and 
into  the  rear  of  another  train. 

The  number  of  collisions  with  loose  cars  not  part  of  a  train  is  greater 
than  was  to  be  expected.  This  is  largely  due  to  misplaced  switches 
leading  an  approaching  train  into  a  siding  occupied  by  cars,  though  in 
some  instances  the  cars  were  started  out  of  the  sidings  and  ran  down 
grade  into  a  train  on  the  main  line. 

These  rear  collisions  may  be  differently  classified  in  accordance  with 
the  place  at  which  they  occurred,  as  for  instance  : 
Between  stations,         ..-.------  86 

At  stations,      ------- 77 

Train  parted, 27 

Misplaced  switch, 25 

Not  stated,  -         .         . 15 

Total, 230 

With  this  information  as  to  the  circumstances  under  which  these 
rear  collisions  took  place,  reference  may  be  made  to  the  proper  reme- 
dies or  rather  preventives. 

Defects  in  drawgear  are  accountable  for  the  27  cases  in  which 
trains  parted,  and  negligence  of  employes  for  the  25  cases  in  which  a 
collision  was  due  to  a  misplaced  switch.  This  leaves  163  collisions 
nearly  equally  divided  as  to  the  place  of  occurrence,  whether  at  stations 
or  between  stations. 

As  a  general  proposition  two  trains  proceeding  in  the  same  direction 
should  be  separated  by  an  interval  of  space  sufficient  for  the  following 
train  to  be  stopped  at  any  time  within  that  interval.  To  accomplish 
this  the  engineer  of  the  following  train  must  be  informed  whenever  the 
limit  of  that  interval  is  being  encroached  upon. 


1 1 4  WORLD'S  RAIL  WA  V  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

The  extent  of  this  interval  of  safety  must  vary  with  the  speed  of  the 
rear  train,  the  gradient  of  the  track  and  the  efficiency  of  the  appliances 
provided  for  bringing  the  train  to  a  state  of  rest — for  example,  as 
between  a  light  train,  equipped  with  air-brakes  proceeding  slowly  up  an 
one  per  cent,  grade,  and  a  heavy  train,  equipped  with  hand-brakes 
proceeding  rapidly  down  the  same  grade.  Conditions  of  weather  tend- 
ing to  obscure  the  range  of  vision  or  to  lessen  the  adhesion  of  wheels  to 
the  track  or  of  brakes  to  the  wheels  may  also  serve  to  extend  the  inter- 
val of  safety. 

When  the  prevailing  conditions  extend  the  limit  of  this  interval 
beyond  the  range  of  vision  of  the  engineer  of  the  following  train  it 
must  be  preserved  in  other  ways.  The  standard  code  of  train  rules 
adopted  by  the  American  railway  association  recognizes  but  two;  the 
Jblock  system  and  the  flagman  of  the  preceding  train. 

In  degree  of  efficiency  these  two  ways  are  about  as  far  apart  as  the 
poles  of  the  earth  ;  one  being  the  latest  expression  of  human  ingenuity 
as  applied  to  railway  practice ;  the  other  a  makeshift,  the  inefficiency 
of  which  is  in  proportion  to  the  indolence  or  stupidity  of  the  flagman. 
The  absolute  block  system,  rigidly  applied,  will  absolutely  preserve  a 
stated  interval  between  following  trains,  but  the  great  cost  of  its  con- 
struction and  maintenance  precludes  its  use  on  by  far  the  largest  part 
of  the  railroad  mileage  in  this  country.  Where  this  consideration  pre- 
vents, reliance  is  placed  upon  the  watchfulness  of  the  flagman,  who  is 
expected,  when  in  his  judgment  it  becomes  his  duty  to  secure  this  inter- 
val of  safety,  to  leap  from  the  rear  of  the  moving  train  and  armed  with 
red  lantern  and  torpedoes  to  plunge  boldly  into  the  darkness  of  night, 
perhaps  facing  rain,  snow  or  sleet,  hastening  toward  the  headlight  of 
the  following  train  which  glares  at  him  as  he  feels  for  his  footing  on  the 
cross-ties  upon  some  lofty  bridge  or  long  trestle.  At  length  he  reaches 
the  prescribed  distance  of  twenty-six  telegraph  poles  or  about  one  mile, 
plants  his  torpedoes  and  listens  with  eager  ear  for  the  signal  of  recall. 
If,  through  haste  to  depart  or  inadvertence,  the  signal  is  not  given  and 
his  train  moves  off  without  him,  that  flagman  may  pass  the  night  in 
solitude,  perhaps  wet,  cold  and  hungry,  or  until  some  train  stops  at  his 
signal  and  picks  him  up.  Such  are  the  duties  required  of  a  flagman, 
and  it  takes  pluck  and  endurance  to  fulfil  them. 

It  also  takes  intelligent  judgment  to  determine  promptly  under  the 
four  rules  for  flagmen,  making  sixty-eight  lines  of  the  standard  code, 
just  when  a  flagman  must  go  back,  how  far  he  must  go,  and  what  he 
must  do  when  he  gets  there;  yet  this  important  service  is  generally 
entrusted  to  a  novice,  to  an  apprentice  in  training  for  promotion  to  a 
conductor's  place  or  to  some  sturdy  brakeman,  accustomed,  it  is  true, 
to  the  hardships  of  train  service,  but  also  to  successfully  evading  them. 
Either  through  ignorance  or  doubt  or  fear  of  being  left  the  flagman  may 
linger  around  the  rear  of  a  train  until  it  is  too  late  for  him  to  stop  a 
following  train  or  he  may  disappear  in  the  darkness  or  just  around  a 
curve  near  enough  to  be  handy  when  recalled,  taking  the  chances  as  to 
whether  a  train  is  following  or  not. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  a  majority  of  the  rear  collisions  between  sta- 
tions are  due  to  a  failure  of  the  flagman  to  comply  with  the  rules  pre- 
scribed by  the  standard  code  for  his  guidance.  Here  is  the  principal 
cause  of  rear  collisions  and  here  a  remedy  should  be  applied  by  rely- 


SAFEG  UARDS  A  GAINST  A  CCI DENTS.  1 1 5 

ing  less  upon  the  intelligent  and  willing  discharge  of  the  duties  thus 
placed  upon  the  flagman.  The  most  intelligent  and  most  experienced 
man  in  the  train  crew  should  be  the  engineer ;  the  best  acquainted 
with  the  curves,  grades,  bridges,  cuts,  embankments  and  other  physical 
characteristics  of  the  road  ;  the  best  informed  as  to  the  trains  passed 
and  to  be  passed,  and  when  a  stop  is  made  or  the  train  slows  down  at 
an  unusual  place,  he  knows  the  cause  and  the  probable  detention,  not 
only  after  it  occurs  but  also  before,  and  can  often  select  the  safest 
place  for  a  stop.  It  is  he,  then,  and  not  the  flagman  or  conductor  who 
should  determine  when  the  rear  of  his  train  is  to  be  protected,  and  the 
flagman  should  act  promptly  when  the  signal  is  given  to  him,  but  not 
before,  except  in  emergencies  that  can  readily  be  suggested.  If  the 
burden  be  plainly  put  upon  the  engineer  to  determine  and  upon 
the  flagman  to  act,  the  action  of  the  latter  would  be  controlled  by  the 
most  intelligent  and  best  informed  man  of  the  train  crew. 

More  extended  recognition  should  be  given  to  the  use  of  the  time 
fusee.  Its  use  at  night  should  be  obligatory  not  only  by  the  flagman 
but  also  by  the  engineer.  Whenever  he  is  about  to  stop  or  slow  down 
his  train  at  an  unusual  place,  he  should  drop  a  lighted  ten  minute 
fusee  on  the  right  hand  side  of  the  track  on  which  the  train  is  running, 
one  mile  before  the  stop  is  made,  and  an  interval  of  ten  minutes  ahead 
of  the  following  train  is  at  once  secured  by  a  sentinel  that  will  not 
desert  its  post,  by  a  signal  whose  unmistakable  light  will  illumine  its 
surroundings,  let  the  wind  blow  and  the  rain  fall  as  they  may.  Such 
a  use  of  the  fusee  will  not  do  away  with  the  protection  afforded  by  the 
flagman,  but  rather  increases  it,  for  as  he  crosses  a  bridge  on  his  way 
to  the  rear  he  will  feel  personally  safe  so  long  as  he  sees  that  purple 
light  blazing  between  him  and  the  approaching  train.  Even  in  the 
day  time  the  smoke  from  a  lighted  fusee  would  attract  the  attention 
of  a  following  train. 

The  adoption  of  these  suggestions  will  measurably  reduce  the  num- 
ber of  rear  collisions,  but  the  true  preventive  is  the  establishment  of 
an  absolute  space  interval;  for  any  method  of  time  intervals  between 
following  trains  can  afford  efficient  protection  only  so  long  as  the  trains 
maintain  an  uniform  schedule  speed,  can  be  readily  stopped  within 
the  recognized  interval  and  are  not  liable  to  unexpected  delays  between 
signal  stations.  A  heavy  freight  traffic  cannot  be  satisfactorily  con- 
ducted under  such  a  system,  yet  this  was  the  best  method  available 
until  it  became  possible  to  establish  an  interval  of  space  by  means  of 
the  electric  telegraph.  The  fundamental  principle  of  the  so-called 
"  block  "  system  is  that  the  engineer  of  a  train  approaching  a  station 
at  the  end  of  a  block  shall  be  informed  as  to  whether  there  is  or  is  not 
a  train  between  that  station  and  the  one  next  in  advance.  The  interval 
of  safety  is  thus  provided,  but  the  exigencies  of  traffic  have  induced 
what  is  known  as  the  "  permissive  "  as  compared  with  the  "  absolute  " 
block  system,  that  is,  the  permission  for  a  following  train  to  enter 
a  block  with  the  knowledge  that  it  is  not  clear.  This  system  requires 
that  the  rear  of  the  first  train  in  a  block  must  be  protected  by  a  flag- 
man, with  all  the  vicious  consequences  already  referred  to,  and  where 
the  permissive  block  system  is  allowed  there  should  be  no  dependence 
placed  upon  flagmen.  When  a  following  train  enters  a  block  which 
is  not  clear  the  responsibility  should  rest  upon  the  engineer  of  the 


Il6  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

following  train  alone  to  prevent  a  collision.  He  knows  that  there  is  a 
train  in  the  block.  Let  him  then  proceed  with  such  caution  as  to  have 
his  train  under  proper  control. 

But  even  the  absolute  block  system  is  defective  as  a  protection 
against  rear  collisions  until  the  element  of  human  fallibility  has  been 
eliminated. 

The  effort  to  eliminate  human  agency  begins  with  the  manipulation 
of  the  signal  at  the  entrance  of  the  block.  If  this  signal  is  under  the 
control  of  the  operator  at  the  outlet  of  the  block  there  is  one  mind 
less  to  make  a  mistake,  and  this  is  sought  to  be  accomplished  by  the 
"  manual  controlled  "  system.  But  we  have  also  to  guard  against 
the  mistake  of  the  operator  at  the  outlet  of  the  block.  This  man  has 
to  determine  that  the  block  is  or  is  not  clear,  and  then  to  control  accord- 
ingly the  display  of  the  signal  at  the  entrance.  He  must  not  only 
know  that  an  engine  has  passed  out  of  the  block,  but  that  every  car 
of  its  train  has  also  passed  out.  Even  if  he  be  correctly  informed  that 
the  block  is  clear,  there  must  also  be  a  certainty  that  the  signal  at  the 
entrance  has  been  properly  displayed.  Yet  another  improvement 
would  be  attained  by  eliminating  the  intervention  of  this  operator 
also.  This  has  been  experimentally  accomplished  by  several  devices 
actuated  by  the  train,  simultaneously  operating  a  display  of  the  signals 
required  to  block  the  interval  which  it  is  entering  and  to  clear  that 
which  it  is  leaving.  Indeed  this  effect  can  now  be  extended  to  the 
next  block  behind  the  train  so  that  the  engineer  of  a  following  train 
may  thereby  be  informed  not  only  as  to  the  condition  of  the  block 
ahead  of  him,  but  also  as  to  the  condition  of  the  block  ahead  of  that. 
It  is  also  practicable  to  provide  appliances  which  will  prevent  the  sig- 
nal from  indicating  that  the  block  is  clear  so  long  as  there  is  a  car  of 
the  train  left  in  the  block,  an  intervening  switch  misplaced  or  a  rail 
in  the  track  loosened  from  its  fastenings. 

Here  we  seem  to  have  reached  the  uttermost  limits  of  the  resources 
at  present  available  for  the  avoidance  of  rear  collisions,  though  it  is 
possible  to  go  a  step  further  and  prevent  their  occurrence  through  the 
misconduct  or  neglect  of  the  engineer  of  a  following  train,  by  the  intro- 
duction of  appliances  connected  with  the  block  signals  which  shall 
strike  the  engine  gong,  or  blow  the  whistle,  or  apply  the  brakes,  or  even 
close  the  throttle  valve  on  the  following  train,  but  these  appliances  have 
not  yet  reached  such  a  stage  of  efficiency  as  to  call  for  further  notice. 

To  recapitulate  what  has  been  stated,  the  general  adoption  of  the 
absolute  block  system  would  have  prevented  nearly  every  rear  colli- 
sion that  took  place  between  stations  in  1 892.  But  on  perhaps  80  per  cent 
of  the  mileage  of  this  country  the  principal  dependence  for  protection 
against  such  collisions  is  the  flagman.  Except  on  roads  with  very 
heavy  traffic,  the  establishment  of  the  absolute  block  system  is  imprac- 
ticable because  of  the  increased  cost  of  operation  consequent  upon  its  in- 
troduction. On  such  roads  the  flagman  must  still  be  relied  upon,  and  his 
usefulness  will  be  greatly  enhanced  if  he  be  put  directly  under  the  engi- 
neer's control  by  whistle  signal,  and  if  the  engineer  be  required  to  rely 
upon  the   fusee  to  preserve  the  interval  of  safety  for  a  following  train. 

The  statistics  show  that  rear  collisions  take  place  about  as  frequently 
at  stations  as  between  stations.  Such  collisions  generally  occur  from 
the  crew  of  the  train  standing  at  the  station  believing  that  the  engineer 


SAFEG  UARDS  A  GAINST  A  CCI DENTS.  1 1 7 

of  the  following  train  will  approach  cautiously,  expecting  the  track  at 
the  station  to  be  occupied,  while  in  fact  the  engineer  of  the  following 
train  approaches  the  station  fully  confident  that  if  the  track  were  not 
clear  the  flagman  would  be  out  a  proper  distance.  Here  again  the 
reliance  is  placed  on  the  flagman  with  the  same  unfortunate  conse- 
quences. The  investigation  of  rear  collisions  at  stations,  or  where  the 
forward  train  was  standing  still,  will  show  that  in  the  most  of  them  the 
flagman  was  in  doubt  as  to  whether  he  should  go  back  or  not.  Perhaps 
the  engineer  had  only  stopped  for  a  few  minutes  to  inspect  something 
about  the  engine,  or  at  a  water  station  where  every  man  on  the  road 
ought  to  know  that  trains  always  stop — or,  if  at  a  regular  station,  then 
the  train  did  not  stop  just  at  the  usual  place.  Theoretically  the  flagman 
always  goes  back  the  prescribed  distance  whenever  the  train  stops.  In 
practice  he  only  goes  back  to  the  proper  distance  when  he  knows  that  a 
train  is  following,  or  that  he  will  have  plenty  of  time  to  get  back  to  his 
train,  or  that  some  official  of  the  road  has  his  private  car  attached.  The 
remedies  are  the  same  as  for  rear  collisions;  either  the  absolute  block 
system,  or  the  engineer  made  responsible  for  signaling  the  flagman 
back.  The  variety  of  conditions  under  which  it  must  by  determined 
whether  a  flagman  should  or  should  not  be  sent  to  the  rear  can  be  seen 
by  reference  to  the  circular  notice  attached  to  this  paper. 

Another  fruitful  cause  of  rear  collisions  is  misplaced  switches.  There 
are  several  remedies  for  accidents  of  this  kind.  In  yards  the  responsi- 
bility for  a  rear  collision  should  rest  with  the  engineer  of  a  following 
train.  He  should  understand  that  he  will  receive  no  warning  by  flag- 
men, only  by  switching  signals,  and  should  always  enter  and  pass 
through  a  yard  with  his  train  under  such  control  that  it  could  be  stopped 
at  least  in  its  length.  This  should  be  insisted  upon  unless  switching  is 
forbidden  on  the  running  tracks  through  the  yards.  Switches  not  in 
yards  should  be  provided  with  counter-weighted  switch  levers  that  can 
only  be  locked  on  the  main  line.  When  in  use,  a  man  would  then 
have  to  be  at  the  switch,  and  when  not  in  use  the  counter-weight  would 
bring  the  switch  clear  of  the  main  line.  Whenever  a  counter-weight 
switch  lever  is  not  used,  a  distant  signal  should  be  connected  with  the 
switch. 

To  guard  against  cars  being  moved  out  of  a  siding  so  far  as  to  foul 
the  main  line  a  derailing  device  should  be  placed  at  the  clearance 
post. 

Butting  collisions  are  about  as  frequent  as  rear  collisions,  yet  they 
are  much  easier  of  prevention.  No  two  trains,  proceeding  in  opposite 
directions  on  the  same  track,  should  never  meet  anywhere  except  at  a 
siding.  If  the  standard  code  is  strictly  followed  this  cannot  happen, 
for  it  gives  the  absolute  right  of  track  to  all  trains  in  one  direction. 
This  can  only  be  varied  by  special  telegraphic  orders,  and  if  the  meeting 
point  is  correctly  given  the  trains  must  meet  at  that  point.  Where  the 
standard  code  of  train  rules  is  observed  a  butting  collision  can  not 
occur  between  stations,  except  through  the  carelessness  of  the  train  dis- 
patcher, or  of  the  train  crew. 

Butting  collisions  do  frequently  occur  at  stations  and  from  the  same 
causes  that  rear  collisions  occur  at  the  same  places  ;  because  the  train 
crew  at  the  station  expects  approaching  trains  to  be  under  control,  and 
because   the  engineers  of  approaching  trains  do  not  have  their  trains 


Il8  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

under  control.  The  remedies  are  the  same  for  the  one  class  of  collis- 
ions at  stations  as  for  the  other. 

A  crossing  collision  should  never  occur.  Either  a  crossing  should 
be  so  protected  by  signals  and  derailing  switches  as  to  prevent  the  pos- 
sibility of  collision,  or  every  train  should  come  to  an  absolute  stop,  with 
the  engine  standing  at  a  stop  post  fifty  feet  from  the  crossing.  In  that 
distance  a  dangerous  speed  can  not  be  attamed  at  the  crossing,  and 
when  a  collision  does  occur  the  engineer  whose  engine  struck  the  other 
train  should  be  held  solely  responsible. 

The  derailments  reported  in  1892  were  classified  as  follows  : 

Per  cent  of  total 
particularized. 

Defective  track -         104  33 

Defective  equipment 63  20 

Unforseen  obstructions         - 95  32 

Negligence  in  operating  -         -      *  -         -         -         -       49  15 

Total  particularized  26  per  cent         -         .         -         .  311 

Unexplained  74  per  cent 887 

Total  reported 1198 

Particulars  of  derailments  have  only  been  obtained  of  about  one- 
fourth  of  the  cases  reported.  Of  those  particularized  about  one-third 
each  have  been  caused  by  defective  track  and  unforseen  obstructions, 
while  the  remaining  third  was  about  equally  divided  between  defective 
equipment  and  negligence  in  operating. 

The  reported  cases  due   to  defective  track  are  classified  as  follows  : 

Broken  rail     ------------  35 

Defective  switches  or  frogs           ....---.  21 

Rails  spreading -         -  14 

Defective  bridges  or  trestles        ------..  12 

Bad  track       -----.------  n 

Miscellaneous 11 

104 
Over  one-third  of  the  derailments  due  to  defective  track  occurred 
from  broken  rails.      In  the  majority  of  cases  a  broken  rail  means  a 
badly  worn  rail  or  one  of  a  section  too  light  for  the  traffic. 

The  responsibility  for  a  derailment  from  rails  spreading  or  from 
bad  track  should  be  easily  placed  upon  the  proper  shoulders,  and 
derailments  from  defective  switches,  frogs,  bridges  and  trestles  are 
plainly  due  to  lack  of  inspection,  as  also  in  the  most  of  the  cases  classed 
as  miscellaneous. 

The  derailments  due  to  defective  equipment  were  137  in  number, 
of  which  particulars  are  given  of  63  or  53  per  cent,  divided  as  follows  : 


On  locomotives. 

On  cars. 

Total. 

Defective  wheels     - 

4 

17 

21 

Defective  axles  - 

10 

II 

Defective  trucks      - 

. 

10 

10 

Defective  drawgear     - 

- 

9 

9 

Defective  brake  gear 

I 

8 

9 

Miscellaneous     - 

I 

2 

3 

Total       -         -         -         -  7  56  63 


SAFEG  UARDS  A  GAINST  A  CCI DENTS.  1 1 9 

The  number  of  derailments  attributed  to  defective  locomotives  as 
compared  with  defective  cars  is  greatly  out  of  proportion  to  the  number 
of  each  in  service,  but  the  total  of  the  cases  particularized  is  too  small 
to  draw  any  conclusions,  except  that  the  remedy  lies  in  closer  inspection. 

The  derailments  due  to  negligence  in  operating  were  163,  of  which 
particulars  are  given  in  49  cases,  or  30  per  cent,  as  follows  : 

Carelessness  in  handling  switches      -         -         -     ■ 29 

Carelessness  in  handling  locomotives     -         -         -         -         -         -         -  14 

Carelessness  in  track  repairs     - -         -         -  4 

Miscellaneous         - ;-""  2 

Total    ----------  -         -     49 

The  switch  accidents,  as  already  mentioned  in  discussing  collisions, 
can  be  largely  reduced  by  the  use  of  a  counterweighted  switch  lever, 
which  will  prevent  switches  being  carelessly  left  open  on  the  main  line. 
Two  derailments  of  passenger  trains  were  caused  by  derailing  devices 
at  crossings,  and  in  each  case  a  collision  was  probably  averted. 

But  one  derailment  is  reported  from  an  open  drawbridge. 

The  derailments  due  to  unforseen  obstructions  were  16$  in  number, 
in  which  the  particulars  are  given  in  95  cases  or  57  per  cent,  as  follows  : 

Cattle       -        - 36 

Washouts \^ 

Malicious  obstructions      -         -         --         -         -         -^..         -13 

Land  slides  -         - -  8 

Miscellaneous  ------------24 

95 
The  principal  single  cause,  cattle  on  track,  could  be  prevented  by 
fencing.  In  the  majority  of  the  other  cases  the  remedy  is  closer  inspec- 
tion. The  other  train  accidents,  which  were  neither  collisions  nor 
derailments,  were  95  in  number,  of  which  particulars  were  given  in  42 
cases,  or  44  per  cent,  as  follows : 

Locomotive  explosions      .--.------18 

Other  accidents  to  locomotives       --...-  -  9 

Miscellaneous -         -         -         -         -         -i5 

42 
Some   of  the  train  accidents  as  above  classified  were  more  or  less 
involved  either  as  a  cause  or  effect  with  bridges  and  fires,  and  it  is  there- 
fore somewhat  interesting  to  treat  of  them  as  so  related. 

In  21  cases  of  derailment  caused  by  condition  of  bridges,  the  par- 
ticulars are  as  follows  : 

Bridge  damaged  by  flood         - --8 

Bridge  damaged  by  fire       --.--..--  5 

Bridge  otherwise  defective -         -         -         6 

Insufficient  bridge  signals -         .         .  2 

Due  to  insufficient  inspection         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         21 

Injury  to  bridges  by  train  accidents. 
By  derailments         --.---...-.7 
By  collisions       -- -  5 

12 


I20  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

In  seven  derailments  and  one  collision,  the  trains  were  thrown  off  of 
a  bridge,  so  that  it  may  be  said  that  in  these  eight  cases,  and  in  the 
twelve  cases  of  injury  to  bridges  by  derailment  and  by  collision  effi- 
cient guard  rails  would  have  prevented  the  resulting  damage. 

As  with  bridge  accidents  so  it  is  with  accidents  by  fire,  they 
may  be  either  a  cause  or  an  effect. 

In  6 1  cases  of  fires  on  trains,  of  which  particulars  are  given,  the 
causes  were  as  follows  : 

Pass.  Freight.  Total. 

Rear  collision — engine  set  train  afire       -         -         -  5  21              26 

"             "         caboose»stove     -         -         .         -  22 

"              "         lamp  in  horse  car  -         -         -         -  i  i 

"             "         lamp  in  baggage  car  -         -         -  i  i 

Butting  collision — engine  set  train  afire    -         -         -  2  3               5 

"             "              stove  in  express  car          -         -  i  i 

Crossing    "              stove  in  passenger  car         -         -  i  i 

Derailment — stove  in  passenger  car     ---11  1 1 

"              fire  from  engine         .          .          .         .  j  •j               ^ 

*'              contents  of  freight  car  -         -         -  3  3 

Illuminating  gas     -------  i  I 

Case  of  gasolene  dropped  from  preceding  train     -  i  i 

Total         ..-.--.-  24  33  57 

Set  on  fire  by  locomotives         -----  8  22  35 

Set  on  fire  by  stoves      ------  13  2  15 

Set  on  fire  by  lamps         - i  i  2 

Miscellaneous     -         - 2  3  5 

Total -         -       14  33  57 

The  remedy  against  fires  caused  by  locomotives  is  plainly  to  reduce 
the  number  of  collisions,  and  especially  of  rear  collisions ;  so  that 
against  fire  caused  by  stoves  is  to  replace  them  with  safer  heating 
apparatus. 

In  general,  the  diminution  in  railway  accidents  must  be  brought 
about  by  increased  efficiency  in  appliances,  in  regulations,  in  discipline 
and  in  inspection. 

Under  the  head  of  appliances  experience  shows  that  rear  collisions 
between  stations  can  be  greatly  diminished  by  a  more  extended  use  of 
the  block  system,  that  many  collisions  are  caused  by  switches  left 
wrong  which  could  not  occur  with  counterweighted  switch  levers,  that 
cars  could  not  be  moved  out  of  sidings  if  prevented  by  derailing 
devices,  that  derailments  at  switches  could  be  prevented  by  the  use  of 
safety  switches,  that  guard  rails  on  bridges  and  trestles  would  often  pre- 
vent derailments  and  the  consequent  injuries  to  trains  and  structures,  and 
that  steam  heating  apparatus  should  replace  stoves  in  passenger  cars. 

As  to  efficient  regulations  the  standard  code  of  train  rules  of  the 
American  Railway  association  is  the  result  of  the  experience  of  those 
best  qualified  to  frame  such  a  code.  Its  general  adoption  has  done 
much  to  bring  about  a  uniformity  of  practice  throughout  the  country, 
and  with  it  to  reduce  the  possibility  of  accidents  due  to  trainmen 
changing  from  one  road  to  another.  As  already  suggested  it  would  be 
an  improvement  for  the  engineer  of  a  train  to  be  required  to  make  use 
of  the  fusee  as  a  rear  protection,  and  also  to  put  the  flagman  more  im- 
mediately under  his  direction. 


SAFEGUARDS  AGAINST  ACCIDENTS.  121 

The  association  code  of  rules  for  the  movement  of  trains  by  tele- 
graphic orders  is  an  admirable  piece  of  work,  and  has  been  even  more 
generally  adopted  than  the  code  of  train  rules.  Where  it  is  rigidly 
enforced  a  butting  collision  could  only  arise  from  the  carelessness  or 
recklessness  of  an  employ^. 

There  is  need  for  similar  standard  codes  regulating  the  conduct  of 
employes  in  other  matters  incidental  to  the  movement  and  handling  of 
trains. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  greatest  fields  for  improving  the  train  service  in 
this  country  is  that  of  discipline.  The  lack  of  unquestioning  obe- 
dience to  authority  and  of  prompt  compliance  with  established  rules  is 
at  the  bottom  of  more  railway  accidents  than  every  other  cause  put  to- 
gether. This  is  rarely  shown  in  the  newspaper  accounts,  indeed  it  is  only 
ascertained  in  most  cases  by  a  thorough  investigation  of  all  the  circum- 
stances. The  facts  as  to  the  chances  taken  daily  by  reckless  or  indo- 
lent or  careless  employes  in  flagrant  disregard  of  carefully  devised 
regulations  and  of  even  the  common  dictates  of  prudence  would,  if 
generally  known,  do  much  to  bring  about  an  improvement  in  this 
respect.  Public  opinion  would  then  hold  employes  responsible  in  many 
cases  of  accident  where  now  there  is  a  senseless  or  unjust  abuse  of 
corporations  and  officials.  It  is  now  so  difficult  to  get  a  jury  to  look 
upon  the  infraction  of  a  train  rule  by  an  employe  as  a  crime  that  rail- 
road companies  content  themselves  with  discharging  men  in  such 
cases,  who  are  then  free  to  find  employment  elsewhere  and  to  repeat 
the  offense,  and  the  attempt  to  keep  a  record  of  such  offenders  is 
denounced  as  odious  blacklisting.  Railroad  managers  have  to  contend 
against  a  growing  resistance  to  restraint  and  reproof,  and  a  disposition 
to  oppose  the  interests  of  the  company  in  matters  which  do  not  affect 
the  personal  interest  of  employes  either  one  way  or  another,  thus 
rendering  it  difficult  to  enforce  discipline  even  where  the  safety  of  life 
and  property  are  involved.  Their  efforts  need  to  be  reinforced  by 
public  opinion,  by  the  press  and  by  the  courts,  for  strict  discipline  and 
prompt  obedience  to  orders  under  conditions  of  exposure  to  weather, 
to  danger,  and  even  to  death,  are  as  necessary  and  as  meritorious  in 
railroad  service  as  in  military  service. 

In  this  connection  railroad  managements  are  themselves  open  to 
censure  for  inefficient  supervision  of  train  service.  They  have  the  les- 
son to  learn  which  centuries  of  experience  have  taught  to  the  creators 
and  leaders  of  military  organizations  ;  that  it  is  one  thing  to  give  an 
order,  and  another  thing  to  see  that  it  is  enforced.  Close  inspection 
ensures  efficiency  of  appliances  of  regulations  and  of  discipline,  and 
this  is  greatly  lacking  even  on  the  best  railroad  systems  in  this  country. 
Money  expended  in  salaries  for  men  to  do  nothing  else  but  see  that 
rules  are  observed,  is  looked  upon  as  wasted.  What  is  wanted  is  not 
spies  nor  detectives,  but  a  staff  of  inspectors  reporting  directly  to  the 
general  manager  outside  of  any  department  officials.  This  is  what  is 
done  in  armies,  and  the  positions  are  held  in  honor  and  filled  by  the 
best  men  on  the  general's  staff.  With  such  a  system  of  inspection,  the 
management  does  not  have  to  wait  for  a  bridge  to  fall  down  to  learn 
that  it  was  rotten,  or  for  a  score  of  lives  to  be  lost  in  an  accident  to 
know  that  train  rules  were  habitually  disregarded. 

As  stated  in  the  beginning  of  this  paper,  the  personal  injuries  aris- 


1 2  2  WORLD'S  RAIL  WA  Y  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

ing  from  railway  accidents  have  attracted  the  attention  of  state  railway- 
commissions  rather  than  the  causes  of  such  accidents,  and  some  refer- 
ence may  therefore  be  made  to  this  aspect  of  the  subject. 

The  classes  of  persons  suffering  injuries  from  railway  accidents  are 
passengers,  employes  and  trespassers,  as  well  as  a  fourth  class  of  per- 
sons that  cannot  properly  be  included  under  either  of  these  heads.  I 
have  therefore  prepared  some  figures  as  to  the  number  of  persons 
injured  by  train  accidents  in  1892,  which  have  been  already  analyzed 
as  to  other  causes.  Classified  as  stated,  the  results  are  as  follows.  The 
total  number  of  persons  injured  in  these  accidents  were  : 

Killed 664 

Injured 2,252 

Total 2,916 

divided  as  between  : 

Passengers 1,150 

Employes     -----          -         -         -  1,648 

Trespassers 85 

Miscellaneous 33 

These  casualties  resulted  from  : 

Collisions           -         -         - 1,458 

Derailments            - i,379 

Other  accidents         -..---.  yg 

About  one-third  more  passengers  were  killed  than  employes.  The 
principal  causes  of  personal  injuries  were  : 

Killed.  Injured.         Total. 

In  rear  collisions 116  462  578 

In  butting  collisions 200  525  725 

Derailment  from  broken  rails         -         -         -         -  15  196  211 

Derailment  from  cattle  on  track        -         -         -         -       30  98  128 

There  were  61  accidents,  in  which  the  trains  took  fire,  and  from 
these  fires  10  passengers  and  3  employes  were  killed  and  13  passengers 
injured. 

The  resulting  injuries  from  train  accidents  vary  of  course  greatly 
with  the  number  of  persons  exposed  in  each,  while  serious  loss  of  life 
occasionally  results  primarily  from  irregularities  which  are  themselves 
of  but  little  consequence  and  of  rare  occurrence.  The  appended  table 
(Table  C)  gives  separately  each  accident  reported  in  1892  which 
resulted  in  ten  or  more  persons  being  injured.  A  derailment  on  a  high 
bank  caused  by  a  broken  rail  resulted  in  2  deaths  and  34  injured.  An- 
other to  a  work  train,  with  300  men  on  board,  also  happened  on  a  high 
bank,  plunging  the  train  into  a  river,  drowning  3  and  injuring  30. 
Another  derailment  caused  by  a  trestle  giving  way,  after  having  been 
weakened  by  a  flood,  resulted  in  drowning  7  and  injuring  30.  A  pass- 
enger train  ran  past  a  block  signal  and  plunged  into  the  rear  of  another 
passenger  train,  killing  12  passengers  and  injuring  23.  A  butting  col- 
lision, growing  out  of  the  mistaken  reading  of  a  new  time  card,  led  to 
the  death  of  5  and  the  injury  of  43  others.  A  freight  train  ran  past 
a  block  signal  into  the  rear  of  a  passenger  train,  killing  9  and  wound- 
ing 32. 


SAFEGUARDS  AGAINST  ACCIDENTS. 


123 


TABLE     C. 

Serious  Accidents — Personal   injuries. 


Butting   Collision, 
Derailment 


Butting  Collision. 


Derailment. 


Rear  Collsiion. 


Butting   Collision, 


Collision. 
Derailment. 


Side  Collision. 
Derailment. 


Rear  Collision. 


Pas. 


Em. 
2 


To- 


Pas. 

6 

Em. 
2 

To. 

8 

29 
12 

5 

34 
12 

8 

3 

II 

8 

13 
12 

15 

3 
2 

I 

30 

11 

15 
13 
15 
15 
30 

12 

3 

15 

20 

20 

25 

5 

30 

II 

7 

7 
II 

23 

23 

7 

7 

43 

43 

3 

^ 

9 

20 

20 

13 

13 

5 

7 

12 

25 
6 

25 

12 

12 

ID 

10 

12 

12 

8 

8 

20 

20 

Pas. 

Em. 

7 

4 

31 

5 

14 

8 

3 

8 

3 

13 

2 

22 

I 

17 

33 

13 

8 

28 

I 

31 

6 

10 

II 

I 

35 

ID 

47 

I 

4 

6 

20 

13 

5 

7 

30 

13 

12 

12 

12 

2 

8 

20 

To. 


48 


One  train  standing  at  station: 
other  approached  not  un- 
control. 

Broken  rail  on  high  bank. 

Broken  rail,  sleeper  overturn- 
ed and  two  burned  up  in  it. 

Janney  -  M  iller  drawhead  pull  - 
ed  out — car  struck  coal 
chute. 

Broken  rail. 

On   high  bank,   unexplained. 

Road  bed  weakened  by  rain. 

Broken  driving  axle. 

Work  train,  broken  wheel. 

Work  train,  down  bank  into 
river,  300  men  on  train, 
unexplained. 

New  time  card,  frt.  man  for- 
got change  of  pass,  train. 

Pass,  train  backing  on  trestle, 
sleeper  fell  over,  frt.  ran 
into  it,  pass,  condtr.  disre- 
garded orders. 

Trestle  weakened  by  flood, 
train  turned  over  and  peo- 
ple drowned. 

Culvert  weakened  by  rain. 

Cattle,  engine,  tender  and 
sleeper  in  river. 

Harrisburg,  first  pass,  train 
stopped,  second  ran  past 
block. 

Pass,  train  standing  at  sta- 
tion, frt.  train  not  under 
control. 

Pass,  and  Excursion,  new 
time  card,  excursion  condr. 
and  engr.  mistook  time  it 
took  effect,  thought  P.  M. 
when  it  was  A.  M. 

Pass,  train  condr.  careless  in 
examining  junction  regis- 
ter. 

Freight  and  work  train,  unex- 
plained. 

Rails  spread,  pass,  car  turn- 
ed over. 

Defective,  switch  wro't  iron 
lug  on  switch  rail  broke. 

Work  train,  cattle. 

On  high  trestle,  fell  over,  un- 
explained. 

Car  on  side  track,  passenger 
engine  struck  it,  pass,  cars 
turned  over. 

Misplaced  switch,  car  turned 
over. 

Engine  ran  into  train  shed  too 
fast,  over  butting  block  in- 
to people  on  platform. 

Car  derailed  and  rolled  down 
bank. 

Empty  cars  let  down  grade  at 
station  by  hand  brakes, 
lost  control  and  ran  into 
rear  of  pass,  train  which 
was  standing. 


124 


WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 


TABLE  C— Continued. 
Serious  Accidents — Personal    Injuries. 


Derailment. 


Rear  Collision. 
Butting  Collision, 


Derailment. 
Butting   Collision, 

Derailment. 

Rear  Collision. 

Derailment. 

(( 

(( 
Rear  Collision. 


Butting  Collision, 
Side  " 


Derailment. 


In  50  Accidents. 
Total  reported. 


KILLED. 

WOUNDED. 

TOTAL. 

Pas. 

Em. 

To. 

Pas. 

Em. 

To. 

Pas. 

Em. 

To. 

4 

4 

13 

13 

17 

17 

1 

2 

2 

16 

16 

18 

18 

9 

9 

13 
32 

13 
32 

13 
41 

13 
41 

i'' 

9 

9 

4 

4 

13 

13 

3 

8 

II 

7 

^ 

8 

ID 

9 

19 

4 

4 

18 

4 

22 

18 

8 

26 

5 

3 

8 

12 

6 

.  ^8 

17 

9 

26 

1 

I 

10 

I 

II 

II 

I 

12 

2 
I 

2 
I 

14 
20 

2 

14 
22 

14 
22 

2 
3 

16 
23 

2 

2 

10 

10 

12 

12 

I 

I 

13 
II 

13 
II 

14 
II 

14 
II 

i 

I 

I 

14 

14 

IS 

15 

7 

7 

5 

5 

12 

12 

4 

4 

9 
5 

25 

I 
7 

10 
12 

25 

9 

5 

25 

5 
7 

14 
12 

25 

2 

2 

15 

2 

17 

17 

2 

29! 

30 
133 

38 
472 

68 
605 

257 
1025 

1 166 

290 
491 

28s 
II58 

71 
1638 

2796I 

Fell  through  trestle  weakened 
by  freshet. 

Mixed  train,  frt.  car  door  fell 
off,  derailed  pass,  car  fell 
down    bank,   turned   over 

2  persons  standing  beside 
track. 

Sleeping  car  turned  over. 

At  station  frt.  train  ran  past 
automatic  signal. 

Work  train  in  time  of  passen- 
ger train. 

Condr.  and  engr.  frt.  train 
on  side  track  asleep,  train 
passed,  they  thought  it 
was  pass,  train 

Loose  rail,  fastenings  remov- 
ed maliciously. 

Agt.  had  order  to  hold  frt. 
train  but  thought  it  was  an- 
nulled by  subsequent  order. 

Defective  switch,  car  over- 
turned. 

Broken  rail. 

Pass,  train  ran  into  rear  of 
gravel  standing  on  main 
line.  Engine  had  gone  to 
station  for  coal.  Flagman 
asleep  in  caboose.  Pass 
engine  thrown  down  bank. 

Pass,  car  down  the  bank  and 
turned  over. 

Broken  car  wheel,  train  down 
bank,  2  sleepers  in  trestle. 

High  wind,  four  cars  blown 
off,  engine  left  on  track. 

Pass  train,  unexpected  stop 
with  rear  of  train  150  feet 
outside  pneumatic   signal. 

Freight  train  ran  into  caboose 
of  wrecking  train,  car  afire, 

3  burned  to  death. 
Pass,  and  freight  train. 
Engine  and  2  cabooses  taking 

siding,  struck  by  pass  en- 
gine. 

Broken  rail,  5  pass,  cars 
ditched. 

Pass,  car  down  bank,  cars 
took  fire,  2  cars  burned  up. 


These  examples  are  given  to  show  that  as  any  class  of  collision  or 
derailment  may  result  in  great  loss  of  life,  in  seeking  a  remedy  our 
attention  should  not  be  so  much  attracted  to  those  which  for  this  reason 
have  a  tragic  interest  as  to  those  causes  which  investigation  shows  to 
have  been  most  abundant  in  accidents.  So  far  as  information  may  be 
gained  from  the  train  accidents  of  1892,  but  few  of  them  can  be  attri- 
buted to  causes  beyond  the  control  of  man.  In  most  of  them  the 
remedy  is  to  be  sought  in  more  efficient  appliances,  regulations,  disci- 
pline and  inspection. 


SAFEG  UARDS  A  GAINST  A  CCIDEN  TS.  125 

APPENDIX. 

RULES    GOVERNING    FLAGMEN. 

savannah,  florida  &  western  railway  company,  charleston  &  savannah  railway 

company,  brunswick  &  western  railroad  company,  alabama 

midland  railway  company. 

Office  General  Manager,  \ 
Savannah,  Ga.,  Oct.  25, 1890.      \ 
Circular  No.  2. 

To  Flagrmen. 

Your  attention  is  hereby  called  to  the  rules  which  prescribe  your  duty  under  the  different  cir- 
cumstances in  which  you  may  be  placed. 

ON   PASSENGER   TRAINS. 

No.  I.  At  regular  stations  noted  on  schedule  as  a  stopping  place  for  that  train,  and  standing 
at  the  usual  place  for  it  to  stop,  See  Train  Rule  229.  If  your  train  stands  over  five  minutes,  you 
must  go  back  with  danger  signals  and  protect  your  train,  as  provided  in  Rule  99. 

No.  2.  At  regular  stations  noted  on  schedule  as  a  stopping  place  for  that  train,  but  not  stand- 
ing at  the  usual  place  for  it  to  stop.  This  is  an  unusual  stop,  and  you  must  comply  with  Train 
Rule  96. 

No.  3.  Stopping  at  stations  not  noted  on  schedule  as  a  stopping  place  for  that  train.  This  is 
an  unusual  stop.     See  Train  Rule  96. 

No.  4.  Stopping  for  wood  or  water  between  stations.  This  is  an  unusual  stop,  to  be  governed 
by  Rule  96. 

No.  5.  Stopping  between  stations  for  engineer  to  examine  something  about  his  engine.  This 
is  an  unusual  stop,  and  you  must  be  governed  by  Train  Rule  96. 

No.  6.  Stopping  between  stations  to  pack  hot  boxes.  This  is  an  unusual  stop.  You  will  be 
governed  by  Train  Rule  96. 

No.  7.  Any  other  stop  between  stations.  See  General  Manager's  Order  No.  300,  also  No. 
299,  which  reads  "  all  other  stops  must  be  considered  unusual  stops."  You  will  be  governed  by 
Train  Rule  96. 

FOR   FREIGHT  TRAINS. 

No.  8.  At  regular  stations  not  noted  on  schedule  as  a  stopping  place  for  that  train,  and  stand- 
ing at  the  usual  place  for  it  to  stop.  You  will  assist  the  conductor  in  shifting  switches,  discharging 
freight,  etc.,  but  if  the  train  is  delayed  twenty  minutes  beyond  its  scheduled  leaving  time,  you  will 
be  governed  by  Train  Rule  97. 

No.  9.  At  regular  stations  noted  on  schedule  as  a  stopping  place  for  that  train,  but  train, 
over- lapping  switch.  You  must  consider  this  an  unusual  stop,  and  you  will  comply  with  Train 
Rule  97. 

No.  ID.  At  regular  stations  noted  on  schedule  as  a  stopping  place  for  that  train,  but  not  stand- 
ing at  the  usual  place  for  it  to  stop.  This  is  an  unusual  stop,  and  you  must  comply  with  Train 
Rule  97. 

No.  II.  Stopping  at  stations  not  noted  on  schedule  as  a  stopping  place  for  that  train.     This 
an  unusual  stop,  and  you  must  comply  with  Train  Rule  97. 

No.  12.  Stopping  for  wood  or  water  between  stations.  This  is  an  unusual  stop,  and  you  will 
be  governed  by  Train  Rule  97. 

No.  13.  Stopping  between  stations  for  engineer  to  examine  something  about  his  engine.  See 
General  Manager's  Order  No.  300,  also  General  Manager's  Order  No.  299.  The  above  stop  is  an 
unusual  stop,  and  you  must  be  governed  by  Train  Rule  97, 

No.  14.  Stopping  between  stations  to  pack  hot  boxes.  This  is  an  unusual  stop,  and  you  will 
be  governed  by  Train  Rule  97. 

No.  15.  Any  other  stop  between  stations,  cause  unknown  to  flagman.  See  General  Manager's 
Orders  299  and  300.  Stops  of  this  character  must  be  considered  unusual  stops,  and  you  must  be 
governed  by  Train  Rule  97. 

These  instructions  do  not  relieve  the  conductors  or  engineers  from  the  responsibility  which  the 
rules  prescribe,  ^our  attention  is  called  to  Train  Rule  47,  and  when  the  signal  is  given  for  flag- 
man to  go  back,  the  warning  must  be  immediately  obeyed. 

When  engineers  throw  oS  lighted  fusees,  as  per  General  Manager's  Order  No.  300,  you  will 
understand  that  it  is  his  intention  to  stop,  and  you  must  be  prepared  to  go  out  immediately  with 
proper  danger  signals. 

At  night  you  must  remember  to  comply  with  Train  Rule  230  as  to  use  of  fusees. 

Never  forget  that  you  are  placed  at  the  rear  of  the  train  to  protect  life  and  property,  and  that  it 
is  in  the  darkness  of  night,  in  fogs  and  in  storms,  that  your  prompt  attention  to  duty  is  most 
valuable. 

It  is  better  for  your  own  peace  of  mind  that  you  should  get  wet  or  be  left  on  the  road,  cold  and 
hungry,  than  for  you  to  see  life  lost,  perhaps  your  own  friends  mangled  and  crippled,  or  engines 
and  cars  broken  up  in  a  collision  through  your  own  carelessness  or  laziness,  or  because  you  did 
not  go  back  when  you  knew  that  you  ought  to. 

To  JEngiut-ers  and  Conductors, 

Your  attention  is  called  to  this  circular,  see  that  flagman  understand  it  and  act  upon  it.  Pay 
strict  attention  to  what  is  required  of  you  as  to  giving  whistle  signals  or  verbal  instructions  to 
flagmen  ;  also  as  to  dropping  fusees  in  ample  time  when  you  know  in  advance  that  you  intend 
to  stop  at  an  unusual  place.  You  will  thereby  assist  your  officers  in  protecting  your  own  lives,  as 
^vell  as  the  lives  and  property  which  it  is  your  duty  to  protect.  You  will  also  add  to  the  reputa- 
tion of  the  railroad  company  which  employs  you,  and  in  which,  I  believe,  that  you  take  as  much 
pride  as  I  do. 

H.  S.  Haines,  General  Manager. 


1 2  6  WORLD'S  RAIL  WA  V  COMMERCE  C ONGRESS. 


INTERNATIONAL  AND    INTERSTATE    RAILWAY 
ARRANGEMENTS. 


GEORGE    R.    BLANCHARD,    COMMISSIONER    CENTRAL    TRAFFIC 
ASSOCIATION. 


To  speak  to  the  subject  of  "  International  and  Interstate  railway 
arrangements"  is  to  consider  the  best  agencies  and  greatest  advances 
of  modern  civilization. 

It  is  often  said  of  persons  that  to  know  them  we  must  live  with 
them.  This  is  as  true  of  nations  as  of  persons  and  communities.  The 
peoples  of  the  earth  know  each  other  better  since  they  live  more  with 
each  other  through  the  modern  facilities  of  railway  and  steamship 
transportation. 

The  successful  practical  uses  of  steam  which  solved  the  doubts  of 
its  experimental  period  revealed  not  only  a  new  carrying  power,  but  a 
new  force  in  the  industrial  and  political  movements  of  nations  which 
has  now  brought  the  remotest  peoples  together  and  established  new 
fraternities  of  commerce,  art,  cordiality  and  thought.  In  all  these 
respects  this  world's  fair  is  a  transportation  trophy.  Steam  has  pro- 
duced esteem.  We  can  perhaps  best  appreciate  its  values  by  suggest- 
ing that  were  the  intercommunications  of  persons  and  property  to 
revert  today  to  the  agencies  of  the  ox,  the  mule,  the  horse,  the  canoe 
and  sail — aye,  even  to  the  canal  boat,  society  would  return  to  undesir- 
able conditions.  Especially  is  this  true  in  view  of  the  increase  in  the 
world's  population  and  the  countries  which  awaited  and  invited  settle- 
ment and  development.  Man  retains  or  returns  to  or  near  the  first 
estate  of  the  Indian  if  he  is  deprived  of  the  stimulus  of  others  who 
compete  with  him.  Stanley  found  such  a  society  in  what  I  may  call  its 
pre-transportation  period,  in  middle  Africa. 

Even  as  a  citizen  of  civilization  the  contented  villager,  uninspired 
by  the  activities  beyond  his  sluggish  little  frontier,  unspurred  by  the 
ambitions  which  proceed  from  human  contact  and  absorptions  from 
advancing  men,  and  trading  only  in  small  wares  in  small  ways,  is  not 
an  inspiring  practical  personality,  however  much  he  may  adorn  romance 
and  verse  with  illustrations  of  contentment  and  simplicity. 

When  he  is  transported  out  into  the  world  and  meets  its  strifes  and 
needs  he  often  becomes  a  force  which  would  have  remained  as 
dormant  as  the  long  sleep  of  steam  had  he,  like  it,  remained  unproven 
and  unenlarged.  The  pastoral  state  is  not  the  type  which  a  nation 
would  transfer  to  its  seal  as  emblematic  of  its  hopes  or  purposes. 
Such  would  not  replace  the  eagle  of  America  or  the  lion  of  England, 
which  tell  other  nations  that  their  meanings  are  to  soar  and  contend. 
A  nation  in  which  no  larger  ambitions  existed  than  those  of  the  hamlet 
would  not  lead  other  nations,  unless  backward.     We  would  not  choose 


INTERSTA  TE  RAIL  WA  V  ARRANGEMENTS.  1 2  7 

interior  Asia  or  the  upper  Amazon  to-day  to  exemplify  at  the  world's 
exposition  the  desirable  conditions  and  purposes  of  existence.  We 
visit  their  nomadic  peoples  as  curiosities — as  human  snails  and  crabs. 
They  absorb  progress  from  us.  We  do  not  feel  that  their  primeval  or 
barbaric  simplicity  and  content  are  to  be  emulated.  We  would  not 
even  accept  ancient  Greece  as  our  type  with  all  its  learning.  Rhode 
Island,  plus  steam  transportation  and  cotton  mills,  has  done  more  and 
represents  a  higher  altitude  of  existence  and  benefits. 

Rome  was  in  no  sense  as  imperial  as  London,  Paris,  New  York  or 
Chicago,  and  is  remembered  most  for  the  extensions  of  its  power  into 
new  domains  by  achievements  of  arms.  Even  its  conquests  were 
fleeting  glories,  unless  an  enlarged  commerce  followed  them,  which 
meant  enlarged  interchanges  and  riches  through  transportation. 

Venice  was  more  beautiful  because  its  roadstead  and  canals  floated 
the  loading  and  unloading  argosies  of  trade  than  because  of  its  Doges 
or  their  palaces  or  fetes.  The  varying  volume  of  the  first  made  the 
great  or  lesser  grandeur  of  the  latter,  until,  its  commerce  lost,  it  went 
into  decay.  Amsterdam  and  the  Dutch  traders  pushed  their  dominion 
by  ships.  Spain's  greatest  glory  today  is  that  its  great  navigator 
reached  America,  attached  new  dependencies  to  its  rule,  and  opened 
new  fields  of  commerce.  That  was  an  achievement  of  transportation 
by  caravel.  But  for  England's  advances  from  the  forest  rites  of  the 
Druids  to  the  forests  of  its  masts  on  the  seas  and  in  the  ports  of  the 
world,  its  Martello  towers  would  still  be  its  telegraphs  ;  the  sluggish 
barges  on  the  Thames,  and  its  coasts  and  canals  would  be  its  locomo- 
tives ;  the  horses  its  telephone,  and  peat  and  rush  its  electric  and  gas 
lights.  An  England  constituted  only  of  its  home  islands  would  not 
stipulate  the  rate  of  commercial  exchange  to  the  world  today.  It  is 
great  because  it  transported  itself  away  from  home,  as  individuals 
become  great  for  the  same  reason.  The  fact  that  its  first  locomotive 
was  used  at  a  colliery  meant  first  the  stimulation  of  local  resource  and 
domestic  advancement.  Those  being  assured,  it  went  from  England  to 
other  countries  on  its  tour  of  development  as  did  its  parent  country, 
and  it  was  the  most  important  emigrant  of  history.  Meanwhile  the 
adoption  of  steam  by  one  nation  became  the  necessity  of  others, 
whether  regarded  as  an  instrumentality  of  peace  or  war,  and  thus 
went  its  progress,  pageantry  and  power. 

The  "Pufiing  Billy"  of  18 13  puffed  its  way  swiftly  over  the  world. 
It  reached  the  United  States  in  1827,  Austria,  Hungary  and  France  in 
1828,  Germany  and  Belgium  in  1833,  Russia  in  1838,  Italy  and  the 
Netherlands  in  1829,  Denmark  in  1844,  Canada  in  1847,  Spain  in  1848, 
Mexico  in  1850,  Sweden  and  Peru  in  185 1,  Chili  in  1852,  Norway  and 
India  in  1853,  Portugal  and  Brazil  in  1854,  Egypt  in  1856,  Turkey  and 
Colombia  in  i860,  Paraguay  in  1863,  The  Argentine  Republic  in  1864, 
Venezuela  in  1866,  and  Uruguay  and  Greece  in  1869.  Greece  was  the 
last  of  these,  with  all  its  olden  Athenian  traditions  of  glory  and  learn- 
ing, being  49  days  behind  Uruguay,  where  its  whistle  was  almost  within 
hearing  of  the  Patagonian  and  the  penguin.  Following  its  introduction 
in  the  years  stated  came  more  universal,  social,  commercial,  economic 
and  artistic  ambitions.  It  would  be  interesting,  did  time  permit,  to 
trace  the  more  rapid  developments  of  nations  from  the  advents  of  the 
locomotive  and  the  screw  within  their  borders.     The  student  of  the 


128  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

history  of  political  economy  will  find  very  much  in  it  to  interest  and 
instruct  him.  Especially  will  its  contrasts  arrest  his  attention  and 
detain  his  memory.  Napoleon  was  defeated  at  Moscow  by  a  lack  of 
transportation  facilities,  now  abundant  in  Russia.  A  locomotive  might 
therefore  have  changed  the  map  of  Europe.  We  girdled  the  Confed- 
eracy by  steam,  and  secession  might  have  defeated  union  but  for  its 
aid.  Gordon  asked  that  railways  supplement  in  Egypt  the  uncertain 
fullness  of  the  Nile,  and  at  the  same  time  neutralize  the  hardships  of 
its  deserts.  The  Trans-Caspian  line  is  being  built  largely  as  a  military 
measure,  and  in  nations  where  standing  armies  exist  railways  are 
located  and  constructed  with  reference  to  the  national  defense  as  well 
as  commercial  relations.  It  is  a  condition  of  the  subsidies  to  the 
enormous  steam  peace  marine  of  England  that  its  capacity  and  power 
may  be  utilized  for  war,  if  exigencies  require.  I  need  not  cite  more 
war  instances,  but  land  and  sea  locomotives  have  achieved  their  greater 
results  as  engines  of  peace,  and  as  such  we  prefer  to  salute  them. 

The  bond  of  extended  mercantile  interest  are  stronger  than  inter- 
national treaties.  Commerce  is  the  truest  diplomacy,  and  merchants 
are  its  ambassadors.  When  two  locomotives  or  steamers  stand  at  the 
borders  of  nations  or  states  waiting  to  intermingle  peoples  and  their 
goods,  they  are  stronger  forces  than  contending  statesmen  on  opposite 
sides  of  state  issues,  because  they  represent  progress,  equity  and  neces- 
sity. Therefore  state-craft  is  pushed  by  the  locomotive  until  there  is  no 
civilized  state  or  nation  now  so  strong  that  it  can  isolate  itself  commer- 
cially and  deny  railways  passage  across  its  frontiers. 

As  one  illustration  German  railways  have  over  200  tariffs  in  con- 
nection with  railways  outside  its  boundaries,  and  this  equalization  of 
places  and  districts  is  many  times  multiplied  nationally  and  interna- 
tionally in  the  states  of  the  world. 

The  Victoria,  cantilever  and  suspension  bridges  and  the  Port  Huron 
tunnel  unite  Canada  and  the  union  commercially  as  well  as  physically. 
Mexico  is  as  much  in  the  union  today  commercially  as  are  some  of  our 
territories.  The  St.  Gothard  and  Mont  Cenis  tunnels  attest  the  progress 
made  in  the  commercial  fusion  of  nations  which  but  a  few  years  prior 
were  antagonistic.  The  growing  sentiment  of  England,  France  and 
continental  Europe  in  favor  of  the  tunnel  under  the  English  channel  is 
another  instance  of  the  preponderance  of  commercial  over  mere 
political  considerations.  This  great  undertaking  has  to  this  time  been 
negatived  principally  upon  military  grounds  touching  the  national 
defense  and  not  as  a  restriction  of  commerce.  Englands  feels  that  with 
the  tides  encircling  it,  and  its  canals  and  railways  interlacing  its  land, 
its  commerce  cannot  be  restricted  by  the  prohibition  of  a  tunnel.  In- 
sular geographically,  all  lands  of  the  world  are  its  shores  commercially, 
Despite  the  military  view,  however,  the  time  will  come  when  the  loco- 
motive will  start  people  at  Rome  to  carry  them  to  London  under  the 
sea  as  well  as  beneath  the  Alps,  and  it  will  be  a  truer  conquest  by 
greater  captains  and  forces  than  when  Italy  first  came  to  Albion  ! 

A  more  recent  estimate  of  the  international  value  of  railway  inter- 
communication is  the  endorsement  by  the  seventeen  states  composing 
the  Pan-American  congress  of  1889,  of  the  project  to  unite  the  rail- 
ways of  North  and  South  America  ;  an  achievement  which  in  the  amply 
fortified  opinion  of  W.   E.   Curtis,  the  accomplished  secretary  of  the 


INTERSTATE  RAILWAY  ARRANGEMENTS.  129 

Pan-American  congress,  is  easier  of  accomplishment  than  the  engineer- 
ing difficulties  encomitered  and  overcome  by  railways  in  Colorado  and 
Oregon.  I  cannot  refrain  from  saying,  as  an  American,  that  the  dis- 
continuance by  our  government  of  the  appropriation  of  $65,000  per 
year  which  had  been  made  for  three  years  under  the  former  administra- 
tion to  perfect  this  survey,  but  discontinued  by  the  last  congress  was  a 
step  backward  in  the  development  of  American  commerce  and  the 
progress  of  peoples  closely  related  to  ours.  The  survey  was  being 
paid  for  by  the  nations  transversed  in  proportion  to  their  populations, 
and  to  the  credit  of  the  poorer  states  of  South  America  be  it  said,  that 
they  assented  to  the  choice  of  American  engineers  for  the  work  and 
never  defaulted  in  their  payments.  With  our  larger  surplus  and  interest 
in  the  question,  we  produced  the  default  and  delayed  the  work.  Our 
experience  with  Mexico  justified  us  in  pushing  this  larger  extension. 
The  city  of  Mexico  was  reached  by  rail  from  the  states  in  1884  and 
our  commerce  with  the  land  of  the  Montezumas,  which  in  i860  was 
in  the  ratio  of  1.6,  rose  to  nearly  19  in  1888,  four  years  only.  This 
fact  alone  justified  at  least  the  survey  and  the  valuable  report  which 
would  have  accompanied  it.  Less  than  1600  miles  will  reach  the 
Panama  railroad,  and  400  miles  more  will  unite  our  States-Mexican 
system  with  some  of  the  South  American  rails,  and  less  than  4000 
miles  would  connect  us  with  Buenos  Ayres.  The  South  American 
powers  have  granted  liberal  concessions  under  which  railways  are 
rapidly  extending  northward  from  the  river  Plate  to  Bogota.  When 
completed  to  the  Isthmus  they  will  intersect  600  millions  of  internal 
commerce,  and  if  it  grows  as  with  Mexico,  who  can  estimate  what 
traffic  will  follow  those  longest  railway  lines  of  the  world  after  their 
union  ?  They  will  traverse  immense  groves  of  lumber,  historical 
mines,  millions  of  acres  of  coffee  fields,  the  vastest  grazing  and  arable 
acres  of  the  world,  and  forests  of  manufacturing  chimneys  as  their 
locomotives  roar  through  the  lands  of  Bolivar  and  Columbus  and 
Pizarro  and  Washington.  In  this  connection  the  great  work  of  the 
great  state  secretary — Blaine — should  not  go  unremembered. 

While  I  am  speaking  for  railways  I  must  say  a  word  for  its  sister 
interest,  the  steamship.  Railway  and  steamship  are  as  often  allies  as 
rivals.  It  is  in  acting  together  that  they  have  given  every  merchant 
of  Europe  and  America  through  rates  from  continent  to  continent 
which  possess  greater  elements  of  cheapness  and  security  than  the 
first  bills  of  lading  issued  between  New  York  and  Chicago  by  rail  or 
canal  and  the  lakes. 

Can  a  railway  policy  which  has  developed  internal  resources  beyond 
precedents  in  both  North  and  South  America  become  paradoxically 
unwise  when  applied  to  our  foreign  commerce?  In  1858  our  flag 
covered  71^  of  all  the  values  we  imported  and  exported. 

This  was  lowered  to  \\Y2%  in  1888,  so  that  our  commercial  flag  is 
now  much  below  half-mast.  As  our  national  independence  in  all  other 
respects  became  assured,  our  dependence  upon  foreign  steamship  and 
sail  carriers  became  greater.  Standing  first  in  the  wealth  of  nations 
and  sending  and  receiving  more  freight  than  any  other  sender  or 
receiver,  we  owned  less  vessels  to  carry  our  own  tonnage.  How  can 
this  be  national  wisdom  ?  We  had  in  1889  but  56  American  steamships 
in  international  trade  represented  by  $15,000,000  capital  and   158,000 


13°  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

tons,  while  England's  merchant  fleet  was  5,196  steamers  with  7,500,000 
tons  and  represented  by  eleven  hundred  millions  of  capital.  We  paid 
foreign  vessels  for  freights  in  1888,  $170,000,000  and  to  our  own  ships 
only  $29,000,000. 

It  is  the  irony  of  commerce  that  we  raise  vast  crops  and  send  them 
to  the  Atlantic  in  our  cars  to  there  transfer  their  contents  to  carriage 
under  foreign  flags,  whose  freight  charges  we  pay  either  directly  in 
money  or  indirectly  in  decreased  sale  prices. 

Since  June,  1873,  when  we  abandoned  the  policy  of  subsidies,  Eng- 
land has  paid  $225,000,000  to  its  vessels  avowedly  to  enlarge  its  trade. 
The  Caesars  assisted  the  triremes  of  Italy  to  reach  Great  Britain  with 
the  products  of  the  earlier  Mediterranean  civilization,  and  England 
seems  to  have  made  this  its  trade  legend  and  policy.  It  has  the  small- 
est home  domain  but  the  largest  commerce,  and  Threadneedle  street 
thereon  fixes  the  rates  of  exchange  which  govern  finance.  It  bought 
the  Suez  canal  to  touch  the  mercantile  pulses  of  the  east.  It  lends  its 
credit  to  Indian  railways  and  irrigation  canals,  and  the  influence  of 
Manchester  and  Liverpool  are  thus  made  greater  than  Waterloo  and 
Sebastopol. 

If  when  our  nation  assisted  internal  transportation  it  had  adopted  a 
broad  creed  for  aiding  external  international  transit,  millions  more 
would  now  be  in  our  treasuries ;  we  would  have  firmer  hold  upon  the 
world's  markets,  would  exercise  more  power,  and  command  more  legi- 
timate instrumentalities  of  national  riches  and  security.  We  stride 
with  our  internal  marches,  but  we  limp  in  the  maritime  commercial 
procession.  We  should  prudently  but  fearlessly  award  some  of  our 
unprecedented  surplus  to  develop  and  retain  external  commerce.  As 
Admiral  Porter  said  : 

"What  would  $10,000,000  a  year  be  to  this  country,  if  given  by 
Congress  to  help  build  up  our  commercial  marine  ?  It  would  more 
than  return  an  equivalent  in  customs  dues." 

Canada  gave  vast  bounties  to  the  Canadian  Pacific  railway  to 
develop  its  route  and  in  part  to  divert  our  trades  as  well  as  to  develop 
it  through  a  system  of  connections  with  our  lines.  Why  should  not 
this  rich  nation  give  richly  to  retain  its  trades  and  establish  new  ones  ? 
England's  shibboleth  is  "  Free  Trade,"  but  no  nation  so  well  protects 
its  carriers.  Our  tocsin  has  been  "Protection,"  but  no  nation  so  neg- 
lects its  ships.  We  wisely  assisted  the  Eads  jetties,  and  thereby  deep- 
ened not  only  a  river  but  our  national  commerce.  We  spend  vast 
annual  sums  upon  rivers  and  harbors,  some  of  which  money  is  charged 
to  dewy  creeks  with  apocryphal  channels.  Why  not  give  our  ships 
upon  the  open  oceans  some  encouragement,  and  be  less  oppressive 
of  the  railways  ?  Our  capitalists  and  designers  and  our  younger 
Footes  and  Farraguts  are  as  ready  with  money  and  brawn  and  bravery 
to  become  the  allies  of  our  international  commerce  as  are  our  capitalists 
and  engineers  to  assist  internal  growth. 

Our  railways  and  their  steamship  allies  have  proved  an  international 
benefit  in  other  respects.  They  have  reduced  the  rental  of  lands  to 
farmers  in  Europe  and  cheapened  the  grain  and  meat  foods  of  the  for- 
eign poor  as  well  as  our  own.  They  have  assisted  famine  in  Ireland, 
and  recently  thousands  of  tons  of  donated   Iowa,  Kansas  and  western 


INTERSTA  TE  RAIL  WA  V  ARRANGEMENTS.  1 3 1 

grain  followed  the  Geneva  cross  to  feed  the  indigent  Russians  who 
tilled  competitive  wheat  lands.     I  need  not  cite  more  instances. 

Under  the  auspices  of  a  great  American  railway  the  American  flag 
has  recently  been  uplifted  above  an  American  cargo  by  an  essentially 
American  president  on  a  good  ship  built  in  Great  Britain  which  had 
before  floated  the  cross  of  England.  Thus  are  railways  and  steamers 
acting  together  to  achieve  international  commercial  good.  Together 
they  have  replaced  the  passport  with  the  coupon  ticket  and  the  circular 
letter  of  credit. 

It  is  fitting  that  any  consideration  of  international  railway  arrange- 
ments should  touch  upon  the  relations  between  Canadian  railway  car- 
riers and  our  own.  When  the  interstate  commerce  act  was  passed  it 
was  with  the  full  knowledge  of  our  legislators  that  limitations  con- 
tained in  that  law  did  not  exist  in  the  laws  of  Canada  relative  to  its 
railway  carriers.  It  was,  however,  the  intent  of  the  act  that  traffic 
passing  between  points  in  Canada  and  points  in  the  United  States  and 
between  points  in  the  United  States  which  passed  through  Canada 
enroute,  should  be  governed  by  the  conditions  of  the  act,  and  so  far  as 
I  am  aware  the  Canadian  carriers  have  given  as  much  cooperation  to 
the  law,  as  to  those  classes  of  traffic,  as  have  the  American  lines.  It  is 
a  fair  and  just  demand  of  United  States  railways,  and  it  is  conceded  by 
those  in  Canada,  that  so  far  as  they  are  bound  by  the  terms  and  condi- 
tions of  the  act  upon  the  competitive  commerce  which  they  transport, 
the  same  stipulations  should  apply  to  the  same  commerce  when  handled 
by  the  railways  through  Canada  in  so  far  as  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  can  secure  that  result.  In  other  words,  while  we  favor  the 
broadest  international  reciprocity,  the  nation  should  not  grant  condi- 
tions to  the  commerce  of  other  countries  when  passing  through  our  own, 
which  will  give  them  greater  benefits  than  ours;  or,  if  they  cannot  con- 
trol or  influence  the  action  of  our  border  nations  in  that  respect.  Con- 
gress should  not  apply  conditions  to  American  railways  or  the  commerce 
passing  over  them,  which  place  them  at  a  disadvantage  with  foreign 
carriers  and  commerce. 

I  come  now  to  consider  briefly  our  own  state  and  inter-state  devel- 
opment. 

In  his  last  message  to  Congress,  George  Washington  advocated  the 
James  river  canal  and  the  policy  of  assisted  internal  waterways.  The 
nation  built  the  highway  known  as  the  national  road  from  Washington  to 
Annapolis.  It  was  the  courier  of  the  iron  road  and  gave  path  to  the  Cum- 
berland and  Conestoga  wagons  (which  afterward  became  known  as 
"prairie  schooners  ")  as  iron  rails  did  to  the  locomotive.  The  Balti- 
more &  Ohio  Railroad  was  afterward  chartered  on  the  same  general 
route  and  received  liberal  aid  from  Virginia,  Maryland  and  Baltimore. 
Pennsylvania  assisted  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  and  its  canals.  New 
York  State  built  the  Erie  canal  in  chain  with  our  great  lakes,  and 
more  wealth  has  poured  through  it  than  water.  The  national  land 
grant  to  the  Illinois  Central  railroad  gave  the  deciding  impetus  to  this 
great  city  and  state.  It  is  but  8i  years  since  the  Dearborn  massacre 
occurred  on  the  site  of  Mr.  Pullman's  Chicago  residence.  The  3,000 
miles  of  land  between  the  Missouri  river  and  the  Pacific  ocean  were 
undeveloped  for  many  years,  except  by  pioneers  whose  wagons  were 
their  forts  as  well  as  their  homes,  until  the  nation  gave  its  credit  and 


132  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

charter  to  the  Pacific  railways  in  1862,  and  it  was  opened  in  i86g,  more 
than  seven  years  before  the  time  allotted  by  Congress  for  its  construction. 

Abraham  Lincoln  fixed  their  point  of  junction  and  testified  his 
opinion  of  their  national  value. 

Our  townships,  municipalities,  states  and  nation  thus  acted  wisely  to 
financially  assist  various  internal  rail  and  water  lines,  because  trans- 
portation facilities  must  precede  the  actual  needs  of  trade.  The 
traffic  must  grow  to  them,  and  as  commerce  must  "  follow  the  flag," 
we  must  first  send  the  flag. 

Those  truisms  built  railways  in  the  waiting  west  before  they  could 
pay  dividends  and  interest,  but  they  paid  instant  and  large  returns  to 
the  purse  of  the  commonwealth. 

In  the  earlier  stages  of  our  railway  construction,  and  growing  out 
of  the  adverse  interests  and  of  states  as  they  were  then  regarded, 
wrongs  were  done,  impediments  created  and  true  growth  retarded. 
When  the  New  York  &  Erie  railway  was  first  projected,  it  was,  as  its 
name  indicated,  intended  to  run  from  New  York  city  to  Erie,  Pa.  A 
triangular  state  issue  resulted.  New  Jersey  declined  to  allow  its  rails  to 
be  laid  across  that  state  to  Jersey  City,  and  the  terminus  was  for  that 
reason  fixed  north  of  the  boundary  line  of  New  Jersey,  at  Piermont, 
N.  Y.,  23  miles  north  of  New  York  city  which  was  reached  by  water. 
The  riots  at  Erie,  Pa.,  which  followed  the  attempt  of  the  same  railway 
company  to  enter  that  city  will  be  recalled,  and  its  lake  terminus  was 
transferred  to  Dunkirk,  N.  Y. 

The  projectors  of  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  railway  originally  intended 
to  build  its  line  from  Baltimore  to  the  Ohio  river  at  Pittsburgh,  or,  as 
President  Garrett  was  fond  of  saying  :  "  From  the  boldest  indentation 
of  the  Atlantic  to  the  union  of  the  great  water  which  form  the  greater 
Ohio." 

The  same  hostility  of  the  state  of  PenVisylvania  which  affected  the 
Erie  railway,  diverted  the  B.  &  O.  Company's  river  terminus  to 
Wheeling,  W.  Va.,  around  the  southwest  corner  of  Pennsylvania.  This 
was  the  true  interference  with  and  hindrance  to  commerce  which  the 
constitution  anticipated,  and  it  occurred  at  a  time  when  railroads  were 
contending  for  commerce  and  improving  facilities  for  its  passage  and 
enlargement.  I  could  cite  other  instances  in  our  own  country,  and  yet 
more  from  the  jealousies  of  adjacent  military  nations,  but  these  sufHce, 
and  they  are  happily  now  of  the  past. 

Through  intermediate  periods  these  jealousies  changed.  In  later 
years  when  the  Pittsburgh  &  Connellsville  extension  of  the  B.  &  O. 
Company  was  opened  from  Baltimore  to  Pittsburgh,  President  Garrett 
was  hailed  and  banqueted  in  Pittsburgh  as  a  veritable  prince  of  deliver- 
ance. You  remember  local  celebrations  of  this  nature  all  over  the 
country.  Cities,  towns,  counties  and  districts,  especially  those  having 
special  productions,  such  as  coal,  stone,  lumber,  ores,  etc.,  for  a  long 
time  vied  with  each  other  to  secure  rather  than  repeal  original  and 
then  competitive  railway  outlets.  They  offered  them  inducements  of 
lands,  cash  bonuses,  bonds,  stock  subscriptions,  freedom  of  restriction 
of  taxation,  shop  and  station  grounds,  etc.,  etc.,  but  when  secured  too 
often  follows  that  oblivion  of  benefits  and  those  "abridgements  and 
spoliations  of  rights  and  justice  to  which  others  of  this  congress  as  well 
as  myself  have  earnestly  referred  in  other  papers.     Liberality  went  too 


INTERSTATE  RAILWAY  ARRANGEMENTS.  133 

far  and  in  these  respects  the  public  interests  are  now  more  conserva- 
tively considered. 

Originally  it  was  intended  that  the  earlier  railways  should  simply 
be  iron  highways  assisting  or  replacing  roadways  or  waterways,  and 
upon  which  any  shipper  might  place  his  car  as  any  one  can  put  a 
boat  upon  a  river,  ocean,  lake  or  canal,  subject  to  a  system  of  tolls 
for  the  services  of  the  roadway  alone,  or  the  roadway  and  power.  I 
possess  interesting  early  tariffs  of  the  B.  &  O.  Company  in  which  the 
various  charges  for  tolls  are  set  forth. 

The  owner  of  the  car  then  presented  his  own  bills  to  consignees  for 
the  aggregate  of  the  tolls  he  had  paid  and  his  charges  if  he  carried 
freight  for  others,  and  as  is  the  usage  by  canal  today. 

Naturally  as  commerce  grew,  a  multiplicity  of  such  owners  pro- 
duced senseless  rivalries,  reduced  individual  earnings  and  resulted  in 
confusion  of  movement,  and  the  railways  were  solicited  to  assume  the 
entire  service,  which  they  did.  Then  came-^-not  swiftly  at  first — 
the  contentions  of  towns  and  districts  for  carrying  facilities,  until 
localities  as  well  as  nations  knew  that  transportation  isolation  or  com- 
parative disability  meant  commercial  stagnation  or  retrogression,  and 
our  nation  now  possesses  half  the  railways  of  the  world. 

You  have  often  been  told  how  in  order  to  prepare  the  way  of  the 
locomotive,  valleys  have  been  filled,  cities  traversed  on  arches  of  stone 
and  mountains  leveled,  wide  streams  bridged,  tunnels  arched  through 
quicksands  under  waters,  and  pierced  through  eternal  granites.  The 
engineer's  congress  may  well  tell  and  be  proud  of  the  achievements  of 
its  great  profession  in  those  respects. 

My  purpose  in  repeating  these  trite  things  is  to  say,  first,  that  in 
doing  these  great  works  no  other  calling  has  so  fully  engaged  and  so 
well  rewarded  the  highest  attainments  and  energies  of  men.  Unlike 
the  arts,  steam  had  no  examples.  It  was  not  a  system  of  long  creative 
evolution.  It  was  an  original  study,  and  it  has  been  conned,  wrought 
and  solved  with  a  patience,  brilliancy  and  security  which  entitle  the 
projectors,  builders  and  administrators  to  public  gratitude.  I  can  only 
measure  what  is  due  to  them  of  public  thanks  and  appreciation  by 
asking  you  to  imagine  the  beseechings  which  would  go  out  tomorrow 
to  such  men  if  the  morning  found  the  railways  of  Illinois  gone  from 
sight.  See  how  thousands  are  now  affected  by  the  delay  of  an  hour  or 
a  day. 

Multiply  these  suggestions  of  loss  by  the  deprivations  of  the  world, 
and  let  the  whole  picture  excite  a  wider  and  more  equal  public  justice. 
I  think  it  would  then  be  more  generally  conceded  than  now,  that  those 
who  have  done  so  much  for  others  are  entitled  to  have  what  they  have 
done  cordially  remembered,  and  that  the  public  privileges  which  they 
have  widened  should  be  met  by  some  widening  of  corporate  privileges 
instead  of  incessant  restrictions. 

Moreover,  there  is  yet  a  larger  sense  in  which  railways  have  proven 
benefactors.  They  should  not  be  regarded  as  having  accomplished 
merely  the  best  and  quickest  methods  for  moving  persons  and  things. 
They  have  stimulated  every  other  great  modern  facility  of  life.  Rail- 
ways have  created  as  well  as  assisted  communities  wherein  the  activi- 
ties and  rivalries  of  life  have  compelled  the  adoption  and  use  of  all 
other  modern  facilities.    Where  ore  and  coal  were  hidden  under  unin- 


134  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

habited  forests  are  now  Lord  Bacon's  "  busy  workshops,"  occupied  with 
various  fabrics  and  industries,  avenues  of  warehouses,  offices  and 
homes,  amusement  places  and  libraries,  hospitals,  schools  and  churches 
and  all  the  concomitant  enterprises  of  busy  localities.  With  these  have 
come  the  telegraph  ;  the  electric  light  ;  the  street  railway  ;  improved 
roads  ;  municipal  betterments  ;  parks  ;  sewers  ;  improvements  of  adjacent 
farms,  and  the  cheapening  of  all  the  needs  and  pleasures  of  communi- 
ties. 

But  bear  in  mind  that  railways  always  went  before  these.  After 
them  came  these  enterprises  and  comforts.  The  railways  fetched, 
carried,  waited  and  developed.  They  often  failed  financially,  but  they 
went  on  as  prime  organizers  of  industry  and  society,  and  became  the 
one  continuing  and  cordial  aid  of  the  people  in  all  their  inlets  and  out- 
lets of  life  and  employment.  They  must  be  the  friends  of  the  people 
to  be  true  to  their  own  purposes.  If  they  practice  undue  exactions, 
ore  and  coal  remain  undug,  forests  unfelled,  fields  unplanted,  the 
home,  village  or  city  unbuilt.  For  selfish  reasons,  therefore,  the  rail- 
way is  the  friend  and  ally  of  mutual  increase.  If  it  gets  too  little  com- 
pensation for  its  services  its  owners  do  not  share  the  prosperity  they 
create.  They  do  not  rebuild,  improve,  extend,  substitute  steel  for  iron, 
nor  offer  the  highest  standards  of  transportation  facilities,  safety  and 
responsibilities  for  persons  and  articles  carried. 

Whatever  be  the  misfortunes  of  the  railway  itself  through  bad 
management,  lack  of  traffic  or  legislative  compression,  the  railway 
always  remains  a  public  facility  which  is  always  and  under  every 
circumstance  immeasurably  greater  and  better  than  the  best  trans- 
portation conditions  which  preceded  it.  The  present  railway  is  better 
than  the  best  stage  coach,  Conestoga  wagon  or  Erie  canal  boat. 

The  repetitions  of  the  conceptions  and  fulfillments  which  kept  the 
railway  following  on  the  trail  of  the  pioneer,  constitute  therefore  the 
commercial  history  of  the  nineteenth  century  in  all  the  lands  where 
railway  transportation  has  replaced  the  ox,  mule  and  horse  vehicles 
and  the  boat.  Essentially  in  our  country  is  this  true.  In  less  than  41 
years  from  July  4,  1828  to  May  18,  1869,  this  nation  was  belted 
with  a  railway  from  Chesapeake  Bay  to  the  Golden  Gate,  and  the 
radiations  of  its  trans-continental  spine  has  ribbed  out  into  thousands 
of  interior  towns,  to  every  one  of  which  they  had  brought  in  some 
measure  such  increase  of  welfare  as  no  other  causes  gave  the  same 
places  or  districts. 

The  aggregation  of  these  benefits  indubitably  made  the  power  of 
the  nation.  They  brought  here  the  moneys  of  other  countries  to  develop 
ours,  and  then  we  sold  them  the  fruits  of  that  growth.  I  need  not 
detain  you  to  tell  the  great  story  of  the  inception  and  growth  of  the 
carriage  of  our  apples,  cheese,  flour,  grains,  meats,  cottons,  tobaccos, 
beeves,  and  later  on  the  products  of  our  looms  and  our  harvesters  and 
machinery,  to  foreign  countries. 

Moreover,  the  relatively  narrow  colonial  band  of  industrial  area 
skirting  the  Atlantic  coast,  almost  like  the  strip  of  Chili  between  the 
Andes  and  the  Pacific,  widened  under  railway  influence  until  now  trade 
has  no  boundaries  in  this  country  but  those  of  the  flag.  Distances  are 
neutralized  or  averaged.  The  intelligent  farm  owner  or  laborer  of 
Illinois  and  Kansas  has  received   good  rewards  for  capital  and  labor. 


INTERSTA  TE  RAIL  WA  V  ARRANGEMENTS.  135 

yet  undersold  in  Europe  the  poorly  paid  hire  which  worked  in  the 
wheat  fields  of  the  Black  sea. 

All  this  has  been  done  for  constantly  decreasing  charges  and  better 
service.  Railway  economies  and  reductions  of  tariffs  have  pushed  our 
products  where  they  never  would  have  gone.  Two  comparisons  will 
suffice  under  this  head.  The  reduction  in  railway  rates  and  fares 
between  the  first  and  last  years  of  the  war  measured  upon  the  tonnage 
of  the  last  year  was  equal  to  our  war  debt.  It  is  shown  that  had  the 
Pennsylvania  railway  company  received  last  year  the  rates  of  the 
London  &  Northwestern  railway,  it  could  have  advanced  its  annual 
dividend  from  5  to,  say,  20  per  cent. 

In  our  own  country  the  equalizations  the  locomotive  has  wrought 
have  become  common-place.  It  has  equalized  locality  and  product. 
The  climate  of  California  has  recently  been  described  to  me  by  one  of 
its  translucent  minds:  "As  having  days  so  fair  that  he  could  clearly 
see  tomorrow  and  catch  faint  glimpses  of  yesterday." 

We  have  the  fruits  of  that  climate  on  our  eastern  tables  almost  as 
soon  as  it  is  set  before  those  who  produce  it.  The  orange  of  Florida, 
the  watermelon  of  Georgia,  the  shad  of  Savannah,  the  potato  of  Ber- 
muda, the  strawberry  of  the  Carolinas,  the  oyster  and  terrapin  of  the 
Chesapeake,  the  lobster  and  sweet  corn  of  Maine,  the  halibut  of  Massa- 
chusetts, the  pompano  of  the  Gulf,  the  bananas  and  pineapples  of  Hon- 
duras, the  white  fish  of  Lake  Superior,  the  peaches  of  Delaware,  the 
celery  of  Michigan,  the  tenderloin  of  Chicago,  the  sa'lmon  of  the  Resti- 
gouche  and  the  cranberry  of  Cape  Cod  meet  on  our  tables  in  all  states 
unastonished  and  fraternal.  There  are  no  north,  south,  east  or  west  or 
seasons  to  them.  The  railway  and  its  adjunct,  the  refrigerator  car, 
have  established  new  calendars,  new  siderial  systems,  equinoxes  and 
geographies  and  new  markets.  With  all  its  other  attributes  the  locomo- 
tive is  a  purveyor  who  compensates  for  20-minute  stops  for  indigestion 
at  way  stations  by  a  superb  menu  indefinitely  rich  and  prolonged  and 
digestible  at  the  termini. 

All  articles  are  given  a  security  of  transportation  passing  usual 
knowledge. 

There  are  through  railway  tariffs  between  20,000  interstate  points  of 
the  union,  and  coupon  tickets  and  baggage  checks  and  express  facili- 
ties in  indefinite  numbers.  The  cases  at  law  in  the  United  States  of 
default  or  overcharge  by  its  carriers  are  estimated  to  be  less  than 
Toio^  of  I  per  cent,  of  the  transactions  involved.  The  security  to 
persons  is  so  great  that  life  in  a  train  is  as  free  from  risk  of  accident  as 
in  a  hotel.  But  one  passenger  is  killed  or  injured  in  every  1,600,000 
persons  carried.  Dining  cars,  vestibule  cars,  automatic  couplers,  air- 
brakes, gas  and  electric  lighting,  trussed  platforms,  luxurious  appoint- 
ments and  cheapness  of  charge  distinguish  the  service  over  that  of  all 
other  railway  countries.  The  freight  charges  average  only  about  60  per 
cent,  of  those  of  Europe  for  a  swifter  service  and  larger  carrying  lia- 
bilities. The  time  for  ordinary  freight  service  London  to  Paris,  about 
300  miles,  is  longer  than  from  Boston  to  Chicago,  1,000  miles,  and  the 
charges  therefor  average  more.  Every  one  of  these  things  was  accom- 
plished without  compulsion  of  law. 

State  ownerships  would  not  have  achieved  all  these  results,  and  have 
not  done  so  in  the  nations  which  own   or  control  their  railways.     Espe- 


136  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

cially  in  the  formative  period  of  the  government  would  state  owner- 
ships have  failed  of  such  purposes.  No  nation  shows  the  advance  in 
the  facilities,  cheapness  and  expedition  of  railway  service  which  our 
exhibits  display,  yet  for  none  has  government,  done  so  little,  the  Pacific 
lines  excepted.  Many  of  the  governments  bf  Europe  have  granted 
their  carriers  larger  facilities  and  continued  greater  encouragements 
and  acknowledgment  of  their  obligations  to  transportation,  than  do  the 
states  and  the  United  States.  We  have  brought  to  our  markets  the 
riches  of  the  world  and  made  this  the  acknowledged  Eldorado  of  earth. 
In  this  Columbian  year  we  have  done  even  more.  We  have  gathered 
within  our  borders  not  only  the  results  of  our  own  advance  as  a  nation, 
but  we  have  brought  the  products  of  other  nations  here  to  be  contrasted 
with  our  own.  In  the  transportation  building  at  the  exposition  can  be 
seen  the  stages  by  which  the  genius  and  labor  and  capital  of  all  nations 
have  devised  and  furnished  the  means  of  intercommunication  and  inter- 
change which  every  other  department  of  the  exposition  bears  willing 
witness  to.  No  land  of  earth  is  so  remote  from  Chicago  that  steam  has 
not  brought  its  wares  and  peoples  here  to  vie  in  this  industrial  and 
artistic  tournament.  Whether  it  was  the  most  delicate  glass-ware  or 
the  Krupp  gun  for  which  transportation  was  desired,  mattered  not.  All 
the  carrying  departments  of  steam  were  found  ready,  perfected  and 
reliable  to  carry  everything  with  like  facility.  Having  brought  material 
things  together  the  carriers  are  now  engaged  in  bringing  more  of  the 
peoples  of  the  earth'  to  see  the  marvelous  aggregation  of  their  thought 
and  toil.  From  the  shuttle  trains  of  the  Illinois  Central  trains  speeding 
backward  and  forward  in  this  great  city  loom  to  the  Exposition  flyer, 
uniting  New  York  to  Chicago,  with  a  speed  never  before  achieved, 
there  are  conditions  and  strides  of  carrying  perfection  which  in  this  as 
in  every  adjunct  of  this  world's  undertaking  marks  its  superiority  over 
its  predecessors  and  establishes  the  standard  for  its  successors. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  no  world's  fairs  were  ever  held  until  steam 
transportation  made  them  possible.  Every  department  and  adjunct  of 
this  fair  is  a  transportation  exhibit  as  surely  as  are  the  cylinders  of  the 
locomotives  there  shown,  for  they  all  exhibit  the  primary  and  essential 
services  which  steam  carriage  has  performed  for  them.  It  will  secure 
as  well  the  return  of  property  and  persons  to  their  abodes. 

In  concluding  this  swift  review  permit  me  to  say  that  when  this  fair 
is  ended  in  the  dismantling  sense,  for  it  will  never  cease  in  any  other, 
the  world  will  go  to  its  homes,  desks  and  benches  to  con  over  and  build 
upon  the  lessons  it  will  teach  and  the  suggestions  it  will  more  and  more 
evoke  and  stimulate  when  reflection  is  free.  So  the  transportation 
interests  should  study  their  futures.  They  have  farther  duties  to  per- 
form in  and  between  themselves  and  states  and  nations.  They  should 
study  the  papers  here  presented  as  well  as  the  mechanical  phases  of 
the  problem.  They  should  consider  the  dignities  of  the  relations 
between  employers  and  employes  ;  the  care  for  the  age  and  infirmities 
of  faithful  servants  ;  the  appliances  which  will  make  life  and  property 
entrusted  to  them  yet  more  secure  ;  in  softening  the  asperities  of  com- 
petition ;  in  surrendering  some  part  of  individual  conviction  and  power 
to  the  average  belief  and  the  general  good  ;  in  stopping  the  abuses  of 
rivalry  ;  in  securing  just  rewards  ;  in  studying  the  due  relations  of  car- 
riers and   legislation  and   in   convincing  the  just-minded  of  our  rights 


THE  INTERCONTINENTAL  RAILWAY.  137 

and  necessities  ;  in  maintaining  those  rights  ;  in  cultivating  international 
carrying  relations  and  courtesies  ;  in  extending  especially  the  American 
system  of  railwaj^s  into  districts  and  nations  warranting  their  introduc- 
tion, and,  as  Lord  Macaub.y  says,  so  let  it  appear  in  the  future,  that  we 
"have  done  most  for  civilfzation." 

The  presence  of  our  world's  fair  guests  may  prove  as  important  as 
the  earlier  advent  of  Columbus  and  Miles  Standish  to  these  shores. 
Like  them  the  commercial  onlookers  in  our  gates  come  for  discovery, 
not  conquest.  Shakespeare  said  :  "  Welcome  ever  smiles  while  fare- 
well goes  out  sighing." 

We  look  to  these  welcomes  and  farewells  to  incite  a  more  intimate 
acquaintance,  an  increased  interchange  of  the  essential  and  luxurious 
arts  to  improve -the  qualities  of  manufacture  and  to  cheapen  fabrica- 
tion, thereby  promoting  that  more  perfect  intercommunication  which 
means  a  closer  international  brotherhood,  the  wane  of  war  and  farther 
flights  for  the  eagles  of  peace. 


THE  AMERICAN  INTERCONTINENTAL  RAILWAY. 


WILLIAM    E.    CURTIS,    REPRESENTATIVE    UNITED    STATES  DEPARTMENT 
OF  STATE,  world's    COLUMBIAN  EXPOSITION. 


None  of  the  topics  under  consideration  by  the  late  international 
American  conference,  except  perhaps  that  of  commercial  reciprocity 
with  the  other  nations  of  this  hemisphere,  have  awakened  so  much 
interest  among  the  people  of  the  American  republics,  and  in  the  world 
at  large,  as  the  proposition  to  connect  the  transportation  system  of 
North  America  with  that  of  South  America  by  an  intercontinental  rail- 
way. It  is  a  scheme  of  enormous  magnitude,  but  not  so  formidable  to 
the  energy  of  this  age  as  was  the  construction  of  the  old  Cumberland 
highway  between  tide  water  and  the  Ohio  river,  or  the  Erie  canal,  or 
the  Pacific  railways  of  the  United  States  at  the  time  they  were  under- 
taken. The  engineering  difficulties  are  not  so  great  as  those  which 
were  overcome  by  the  Denver  &  Rio  Grande  company  in  Colorado,  and 
arguments  can  be  advanced  in  support  of  the  enterprise  more  forcible 
than  those  used  by  Thomas  H.  Benton  in  the  United  States  senate  in 
behalf  of  the  transcontinental  project  of  1856. 

The  government  of  Mexico  is  pushing  its  railways  southward  with 
great  energy,  and  the  Argentine  republic  has  been  rapidly  extending 
its  lines  northward  until  they  have  nearly  reached  the  Bolivian  bound- 
ary. Outside  of  these  two  countries  railway  construction  has  been  local 
and  intended  only  to  furnish  the  productive  communities  of  the  interior 
access  to  the  sea.  Chili  has  a  comprehensive  system  connecting  the 
chief  cities  with  the  mines  and  the  coast,  and  is  now  piercing  a  tunnel 
through  the  Andes  to  connect  with  the  trans-Andine  road  of  the  Argen- 
tine republic  and  furnish  direct  communication  between  the  two  oceans. 
Along  the  west  coast  of  Central  and  South  America,  from  the  Mexican 


138  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

boundary  to  the  limits  of  the  populated  section  of  Chili,  is  a  series  of 
parallel  roads,  constructed  within  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  extend- 
ing from  the  several  seaports  to  the  mining  or  agricultural  settlements  ; 
and  in  the  interior  are  a  number  of  longitudinal  lines  now  in  operation 
that  may  be  utilized  as  links  in  the  great  system  proposed  or  valuable 
feeders  for  the  support  of  an  international  highway. 

There  are  now  in  operation  in  the  republic  of  Mexico  nearly  eight 
thousand  miles  of  railroad.  There  are  five  competing  lines  crossing 
the  Rio  Grande,  and  three  furnishing  transportation  between  the  Capi- 
tol to  the  ports  of  the  gulf.  The  Mexican  Southern  has  already  reached 
as  far  south  as  the  garden  state  of  Oaxaca,  and  the  new  route  across  the 
isthmus  of  Tehuantepec  is  rapidly  approaching  completion  under  the 
direction  of  Mr.  Corthell,  a  Chicago  engineer,  whose  skill  and  energy 
have  done  much  to  promote  the  prosperity  and  advance  the  commerce 
of  our  neighboring  republic.  When  this  road  is  completed  the  Panama 
railway  company  will  no  longer  dictate  transportation  rates  between  the 
two  oceans,  and  the  sailing  distance  between  New  York  and  San  Fran- 
cisco will  be  shortened  two  thousand  miles. 

In  the  Central  American  republics  railway  development  has  been 
slow,  and  most  of  the  interior  transportation  is  still  carried  on  by  carts 
and  pack  mules,  but  all  of  the  chief  cities  are  now  connected  by  rail 
with  the  seaports,  and  existing  lines  are  being  gradually  extended  by 
both  foreign  and  local  enterprise.  The  present  government  of  Guate- 
mala has  revived  the  plan  of  constructing  a  railway  from  the  capital  to 
the  Atlantic  coast  which  was  unfortunately  abandoned  after  the  death 
of  President  Barrios  eight  years  ago,  and  is  now  offering  most  liberal 
terms  both  in  money  and  land  grants  to  whomever  will  undertake  the 
work.  This  project  offers  one  of  the  most  favorable  opportunities  for 
investment  that  can  be  found  in  all  America. 

Two  important  railway  enterprises  are  being  conducted  by  Ameri- 
can companies  in  the  republic  of  Colombia.  Mr.  Cherry,  of  Milwaukee, 
is  rapidly  building  a  line  from  the  Pacific  port  of  Buena-Ventura  into 
the  Cauca  valley,  which  is  the  garden  spot  of  that  great  republic  and 
one  of  the  richest  sections  in  agricultural  and  mineral  resources  in  all 
the  world.  It  is.  the  intention  to  extend  this  road  to  Bogata,  thus  giving 
the  most  populous  and  productive  section  of  the  country  one  outlet  to 
the  sea. 

A  Boston  corporation  represented  by  Mr.  S.  B.  McConnico,  under  a 
generous  subsidy  and  a  concession  otherwise  favorable,  is  constructing 
a  road  from  the  ancient  city  of  Carthagena,  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  to 
the  Magdalena  river,  which  is  the  only  thoroughfare  for  freight  and 
passenger  travel  between  Bogata  and  the  rest  of  the  world.  Almost 
every  ton  of  commerce  the  interior  of  Colombia  has  enjoyed  since  the 
conquest  has  passed  up  or  down  this  stream,  although  its  mouth  is 
blockaded  by  sand  bars  which  make  the  handling  of  freight  difficult, 
dangerous  and  expensive.  Years  ago  a  canal  was  dug  from  the  river 
to  the  harbor  of  Carthagena,  one  of  the  finest  in  the  world,  but  it  failed 
to  serve  its  purpose  and  has  been  partially  abandoned.  The  railroad, 
which  is  absolutely  necessary  to  the  progress  and  prosperity  of  the 
country,  is  progressing  rapidly  and  will  soon  be  completed,  when  the 
cost  of  transportation  will  be  greatly  lessened  and  commerce  facilitated 
to  a  degree  that  will  revolutionize  the  trade  of  the  republic. 


THE  INTERCONTINENTAL  RAILWAY.  139 

Venezuela  has  now  282  miles  of  railway  in  operation  and  1240 
miles  either  projected  or  under  construction,  extending  from  the  northern 
seacoast  to  the  interior  of  the  country.  The  roads  are  being  built  by 
English  and  German  capitalists  under  liberal  subsidies  from  the 
government,  and  active  work,  which  was  suspended  during  the  recent 
unfortunate  revolution,  has  been  resumed  with  energy. 

There  is  a  railway  in  Ecuador  which  extends  56  miles  from  Guaya- 
guil  into  the  interior,  and  a  contract  has  recently  been  concluded 
between  the  government  and  a  syndicate  of  French  capitalists  for  its 
extension  to  Quito,  the  capital. 

Two  years  ago  what  is  known  as  the  Peruvian  corporation,  com- 
posed of  William  R.  Grace  &  Co.,  of  New  York  and  a  syndicate  of 
English  capitalists,  assumed  the  entire  foreign  debt  of  Peru  in  consid- 
eration for  the  transfer  to  it  by  the  government  of  all  the  railways  in 
the  republic  and  the  control  of  certain  mines  which  have  been  cele- 
brated for  centuries  and  furnished  much  of  the  riches  of  the  country, 
whose  name  was  once  a  synonym  of  wealth  and  magnificence.  The 
famous  Oroya  railroad,  which  was  built  by  Henry  Meiggs  and  has  been 
considered  the  eighth  wonder  of  the  world,  has  been  extended  across 
the  Andes  to  Cerro  de  Pasco,  the  mines  from  which  the  Incas  drew 
much  of  their  treasure  ;  and  other  lines  are  being  built  to  important 
inland  cities  and  mineral  sections  of  the  country.  A  party  of  engi- 
neers has  recently  sailed  from  New  York  to  make  a  survey  for  the 
extension  of  the  Oroya  railway  to  the  head  of  navigation  on  the 
Amazon,  which  offers  an  enormous  economical  advantage  in  shipping 
the  produce  of  the  country  to  Europe  and  the  United  States  over  the 
present  routes  by  way  of  the  straits  of  Magellan  or  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama.  The  increasing  demand  for  rubber,  and  the  destruction  of 
the  forests  along  the  lower  valley  of  the  Amazon  which  formerly 
furnished  it,  makes  it  necessary  to  secure  some  means  of  transporta- 
tion from  the  new  sources  of  suppl}^  which  have  been  found  in  the 
eastern  provinces  of  Peru,  Ecuador  and  Bolivia. 

During  the  last  year  the  great  railway  of  Bolivia  which  connects 
the  port  of  Antofogasta  on  the  Pacific  with  the  mines  of  Huanchaca, 
350  miles,  has  been  extended  189  miles  northeastward  to  Oruro,  and 
gives  the  unfathomed  riches  of  that  Republic  an  outlet  to  the  sea. 
Although  this  road,  with  a  gauge  of  3  j^  feet,  cost  the  enormous  sum 
of  sixty  million  dollars,  and  crosses  the  three  great  ranges  of  the 
Andes,  it  is  paying  an  annual  dividend  of  eleven  per  cent. 

Railway  progress  in  Chili  has  been  rapid  and  profitable,  and  there 
are  now  in  operation  nearly  two  thousand  miles  of  road,  mostly  owned 
by  the  government.  Nearly  every  town  of  importance  is  reached  by 
steam,  and  there  is  a  series  of  parallel  lines  across  the  narrow  strip  of 
territory  that  forms  the  Republic  from  the  northern  boundary  to  the 
southernmost  limit  of  population.  The  failure  of  the  Baring  brothers 
seriously  retarded  work  upon  the  road  that  is  to  connect  Buenos  Ayres 
with  Valparaiso,  and  postponed  its  completion  several  years,  but  the 
contractors  are  at  work  again,  and  it  is  expected  that  trains  will  cross 
the  southern  continent  from  ocean  to  ocean  before  the  close  of  1894. 
This  road  is  one  of  the  most  daring  and  expensive  undertakings  of  the 
age.  Eight  tunnels  have  been  pierced  through  the  backbone  of  the 
continent,   their  total  length   being   nine  and  three-quarters  miles,  and 


I40  WORLDS  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

the  cost  of  construction  has  been  enormous.  It  is  now  but  two  days 
journey  on  mule  back  between  the  termini,  and  the  last  tunnel  is  being 
driven. 

The  Argentine  Republic  and  Uruguay  have  suffered  severely  from 
the  consequences  of  excessive  enterprise,  but  with  good  crops  and 
economy  the  financial  condition  of  both  countries  is  being  rapidly 
restored.  In  the  Argentine  Republic  7,676  miles  of  railway  are  in 
operation,  which  cost  $346,000,000.  Uruguay  has  1090  miles,  furnish- 
ing communication  with  the  seaboard  for  all  the  principal  cities  and 
towns. 

Brazil  has  84  railways,  aggregating  about  seven  thousand  miles,  and 
the  most  of  them  are  paying  investments.     The  extension  of  several  of 
the  lines  has  been  contemplated,  but  very  little  actual  construction  has 
been  done  during  the  last  two  or  three  years  because  of  political  disturb 
ances  and  financial  depression. 

Steel  rails  have  been  laid  almost  one-third  of  the  distance  between 
Buenos  Ayres  and  Bogota,  and  through  the  most  difficult  and  least 
attractive  portion  of  the  continent — the  Gran  Chaco  of  the  Argentine 
Republic.  The  northern  terminus  of  the  Argentine  system  is  at  Jujuy, 
993  miles  from  the  capital.  The  distance  from  that  point  to  La  Paz, 
the  capital  of  Bolivia,  is  500  miles.  From  La  Paz  to  Santa  Rosa, 
Bolivia,  a  line  has  been  constructed  220  miles  in  length  ;  from  Santa 
Rosa  to  Cuzco,  Peru,  the  ancient  capital  of  the  Incas,  the  distance  is 
190  miles  ;  from  Cuzco  to  Santa  Rosa,  Ecuador,  along  the  famous  high- 
way of  the  Incas,  is  880  miles,  and  from  there  to  Bogota  it  is  590  miles. 
It  is  therefore  3,373  miles  from  Buenos  Ayres  to  Bogota,  of  which 
1,213  'S  already  constructed;  leaving  a  gap  of  2,160  miles  to  be  filled. 

This  line  would  pass  through  the  great  basin  of  the  Andes,  a  land 
of  fabulous  mineral  wealth  and  the  source  of  the  great  riches  of  the 
Incas.  Bolivia  is  undoubtedly  the  richest  in  its  mineral  resources  of 
any  of  the  South  American  countries,  and  has,  probably,  larger  deposits 
of  gold,  silver,  platinum  and  other  precious  metals  than  any  section  on 
the  globe ;  but  with  the  present  transportation  facilities  it  is  deprived  of 
developing  influences,  and  the  mines  cannot  be  profitable  worked 
without  modern  machinery.  This  machinery  can  never  enter  the 
country  from  the  Pacific  coast.  Nothing  can  reach  the  mines  or  be 
brought  away  that  may  not  be  carried  on  the  back  of  a  mule  or  a  llama. 
The  mountains  forbid  it.  But  on  the  Atlantic  side  there  is  navigable 
water  up  the  Parana  river  for  ocean  ships,  for  a  distance  of  1,700 
miles.  From  the  head  of  navigation  it  is  only  700  miles  to  the  farthest 
mining  district  in  Bolivia,  and  about  the  same  distance  to  the  diamond 
fields  of  Brazil.  The  climate  is  a  perpetual  June,  the  soil  is  wonder- 
fully productive,  the  ranges  are  capable  of  sustaining  millions  of  cattle 
and  sheep,  the  forests  are  full  of  the  rarest  woods  and  their  botanical 
resources  are  inexhaustible.  The  sources  of  the  Parana,  the  several 
branches  of  the  Amazon,  and  the  Orinoco,  three  of  the  greatest  rivers 
of  the  universe,  are  not  far  distant,  and  furnish  almost  uninterrupted 
navigation. 

The  construction  of  an  intercontinental  railway  was  first  publicly 
suggested  by  Hinton  Rowan  Helper,  who,  for  the  last  fifteen  years  has 
lost  no  opportunity  to  create  public  sentiment  on  three  continents  in 
favor  of  the  scheme.     If  Mr.  Helper  had  lived  two  thousand  years  ago 


THE  INTERCONTINENTAL  RAILWAY.  141 

he  would  have  been  the  high  priest  of  some  popular  oracle,  or  have 
been  confined  to  a  dungeon,  as  Galileo  was,  for  striding  in  advance  of 
his  generation.  He  first  became  known  in  1859  as  the  author  of  a 
famous  book  called  "The  Impending  Crisis,"  which  created  a  profound 
sensation  because  it  predicted  with  remarkable  accuracy  the  approach 
and  the  results  of  the  great  war  between  the  states. 

It  was  largely  due  to  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Helper  that  a  commercial 
commission  was  sent  from  the  United  States  to  Central  and  South 
America  in  1884,  and  that  commission  was  instructed  to  confer  with 
with  the  governments  of  the  nations  it  visited  wtih  reference  to  the 
project.  The  suggestion  was  received  with  the  greatest  favor  every- 
where and  the  report  of  the  commission  recommended  the  calling  of 
an  international  conference  of  the  American  republics  to  discuss  that 
with  several  other  equally  important  topics. 

The  conference  met,  and  after  due  consideration  adopted  a  report, 
which  declared  (i)  that  a  railway  connecting  the  American  republics 
will  greatly  contribute  to  the  development  of  their  political  relations 
and  material  resources ;  (2)  that  a  work  of  such  a  magnitude  deserves 
the  encouragement  and  cooperation  of  all  the  republics  ;  (3)  that  to 
insure  the  perpetual  freedom  of  traffic,  the  road  should  be  declared 
forever  neutral,  and  that  its  uninterrupted  operation  shall  be  guaran 
teed  by  them  all ;  (4)  that  it  should  be  forever  exempt  from  taxation, 
and  that  all  materials  and  supplies,  for  its  construction  and  maintenance 
should  be  admitted  free  of  duty. 

The  report  also  recommended  the  appointment  of  a  commission  of 
delegates  representing  each  of  the  American  republics  to  superintend 
a  survey  to  ascertain  the  best  routes,  the  probable  cost  of  construction 
and  the  amount  of  existing  and  prospective  traffic,  the  expense  to  be 
divided  among  the  several  governments  interested  in  proportion  to 
their  population. 

The  Congress  of  the  United  States  accepted  the  recommendations 
of  the  conference  without  hesitation,  appropriating  $65,000  as  the  share 
of  this  government  for  the  first  year's  work,  and  authorizing  the 
appointment  of  three  commissioners  to  represent  this  country  on 
the  international  board ;  Alexander  J.  Cassatt,  of  Pennsylvania,  Henry 
G.  Davis,  of  West  Virginia,  and  Richard  C.  Kerens,  of  Missouri,  were 
afterward  named  as  such  commissioners. 

Two  subsequent  appropriations  of  a  similar  amount  were  made 
during  the  following  years,  but  the  last  congress  failed  to  recognize  the 
value  of  the  undertaking  and  refused  to  provide  funds  necessary  to 
continue  and  complete  the  work. 

The  other  American  republics  responded  with  enthusiasm,  sent 
commissioners  to  Washington  and  appropriated  their  share  of  money 
to  pay  the  expense  of  the  survey  according  to  their  respective  popula- 
tion. 

The  commission  met,  organized  and  early  in  the  spring  of  1891  sent 
three  parties  into  the  field,  well  equipped  for  the  survey,  and  accom- 
panied by  topographers,  geographers,  geologists,  mineralogists  and 
other  scientific  men  to  make  a  thorough  investigation  of  the  regions  to 
be  transversed  as  well  as  to  designate  the  route. 

The  first  party,  under  the  direction  of  Lieut.  Macomb  of  the  army, 
commenced  work  in  Guatemala,  near  the  southern  boundary  of  Mexico, 


142  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

to  which  surveys  had  ah-eady  been  made  under  the  direction  of  the 
government  of  that  republic,  and  continued  eastward  through  the 
repubhcs  of  Salvador  and  Nicaragua  into  Costa  Rica,  where  in  April 
last  they  were  compelled  to  abandon  work,  owing  to  the  failure  of  Con- 
gress to  make  the  necessary  appropriations. 

The  second  party,  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  W.  F.  Shunk,  began 
their  survey  at  Quito,  Ecuador,  about  the  same  time,  and  proceeded 
northward  through  the  republic  of  Colombia  to  the  city  of  Cartha- 
gena  on  the  north  coast  of  South  America.  Owing  to  the  condition  of 
the  climate,  which  was  extremely  unhealthful  at  that  season  of  the 
year,  the  second  party  did  not  continue  its  line  along  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama,  but  was  transferred  to  Costa  Rica,  where  at  San  Jose,  the 
capital,  a  survey  was  undertaken  eastward  which  was  continued  along 
the  Isthmus  into  the  republic  of  Colombia  to  Carthagena  where  the 
line  from  the  south  was  reached. 

The  third  party,  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  J.  Imbre  Miller,  also 
commenced  work  at  Quito,  and  proceeded  southward  through  Ecuador, 
Peru  and  Bolivia,  crossing  the  main  tributaries  of  the  Amazon,  until 
they  reached  the  terminus  of  the  Arequipa,  Puno  and  Cuzco  railway  ; 
when  they  also  they  also  were  instructed  to  return  to  the  United  States. 

Thus  the  entire  route  from  the  southern  boundary  of  Mexico  to  the 
interior  of  Bolivia  has  been  surveyed,  and  a  few  months  would  have 
carried  the  line  to  the  northern  boundary  of  the  Argentine  republic, 
and  the  northern  terminus  of  its  magnificent  railway  system. 

It  was  the  intention  of  the  commission  to  run  a  line  from  the  interior 
of  Peru,  eastward  through  the  interior  of  Brazil  to  Rio  de  Janeiro 
and  the  other  principal  cities  of  that  great  republic  ;  and  also  from 
Colombia  eastward  to  the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Orinoco  and  the 
capital  of  Venezuela,  but  that  important  work  had  to  be  abandoned  for 
the  present. 

There  are  men  living,  and  in  public  life  today,  who  witnessed  the 
debates  in  Congress  over  the  project  to  construct  a  railway  from  the 
the  Mississippi  river  to  the  Pacific  ocean.  The  stenographer  who 
reported  the  discussions  in  the  Senate  is  yet  the  official  reporter  of  that 
body,  and  some  who  participated  in  them  still  occupy  seats  in  the 
Senate  chamber.  In  those  discussions  it  was  solemnly  declared  that 
the  Rocky  Mountains  were  impassible ;  that  the  absence  of  fuel  and 
water  upon  the  great  American  desert  made  railway  traffic  impracti- 
cable ;  that  the  broad  plains  which  stretched  between  the  Missouri 
river  and  the  great  divide  would  never  furnish  an  ounce  of  tonnage ; 
and  that  the  savages  would  tear  up  the  tracks  as  fast  as  they  could  be 
laid.  These  assertions  were  made  less  than  a  generation  ago,  by  men 
who  were  deemed  wise  and  learned,  and  who  protested  against  the 
waste  of  public  money  in  making  useless  surveys  across  a  country  that 
would  never  be  occupied  or  needed  by  man. 

Similar  arguments  have  been  advanced  in  opposition  to  the  Inter- 
continental survey,  and  the  professional  economists  in  Congress  have 
prevented  the  appropriation  of  even  a  small  sum  of  money  to  complete 
the  reconnaissance  and  publish  the  reports  and  the  maps  of  the 
engineers.  But  the  greatest  advantage  has  already  been  accomplished. 
It  has  been  demonstrated  that  the  road  can  be  built.  The  engineers 
who  have  made  the  survey  found  no  insurmountable  difficulties.     The 


THE  INTERCONTINENTAL  RAILWAY.  143 

problems  of  engineering  and  the  cost  of  construction  do  not  approach 
what  has  been  encountered  and  overcome  in  Colorado,  Arizona  and 
other  states  and  territories  of  the  west,  and  the  elaborate  reports  that 
have  been  furnished  offer  the  greatest  encouragement  for  prospective 
traffic. 

Whoever  builds  this  road  will  hold  the  key  to  the  treasures  stored 
in  the  heart  of  the  southern  continent,  and  their  value  has  furnished 
food  for  three  centuries  of  fable,  A  section  of  country  as  large  as  that 
which  spreads  between  the  Mississippi  river  and  the  Pacific  ocean 
lies  there  unoccupied  and  almost  unexplored.  On  its  borders  are  rich 
agricultural  lands,  fine  ranges,  the  greatest  timber  resources  in  the 
world,  and  the  silver  and  gold  mines  of  Bolivia,  Peru  and  Ecuador. 
What  exists  within  this  unknown  country  is  of  course  only  a  subject  of 
speculation,  but  the  farther  man  has  gone  the  greater  has  been  his 
wonder.  The  tales  of  the  explorers  who  have  attempted  to  penetrate 
it  sound  like  the  recital  of  the  old  romances  of  Golconda  and  El 
Dorado,  but  the  swamps  and  the  mountains,  the  rivers  that  cannot  be 
forded,  the  jungles  which  forbid  search,  the  absence  of  food,  the 
difficulty  of  transporting  supplies,  and  other  obstacles  which  now  pre- 
vent exploration  will  eventually  be  overcome,  and  the  secret  which 
has  tantalized  the  world  for  more  than  three  centuries  will  be  dis- 
closed by  ambitious  scientists. 

The  cost  of  this  road  is  of  course  a  matter  of  speculation,  but  no 
more  money  will  be  needed  than  has  already  been  wasted  upon  the 
Panama  canal.  Three  hundred  million  dollars,  which  I  believe  if 
the  sum  already  expended  upon  that  enterprise,  will  at  the  rate  so 
$50,000  a  mile,  construct  6,000  miles  of  road,  and  the  distance  to  be 
covered  is  much  less  than  that.  Even  at  a  cost  of  $75,000  a  mile, 
$300,000,000  will  build  it. 

It  is  not  expected  that  private  capital  alone  will  complete  this  great 
undertaking,  although  the  assurance  that  the  17  American  nations  will 
join  in  protecting  the  railway  from  disturbance  and  from  confiscation, 
will  give  private  capital  a  guarantee  that  no  South  American  enterprise 
has  hitherto  enjoyed. 


144  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 


BAGGAGE:     CHECKING    SYSTEMS  AND  DELIVERY;    CLAIMS 

FOR  DAMAGES;   LIMITATIONS  OF  LIABILITY; 

RESTRICTIONS  OF  QUANTITY;    NEEDS 

OF  THE  SERVICE. 


MARSHALL     M.    KIRKMAN,     2D     VICE-PRESIDENT     CHICAGO     &     NORTH- 
WESTERN   RAILWAY    COMPANY. 


The  baggage  traffic  of  railways  is  an  important  adjunct  of  their 
business.  It  has  not,  however,  appealed  so  strongly  to  carriers  as  other 
classes  of  traffic,  because  not  directly  a  revenue-producing  agent.  This 
latter  circumstance  does  not  arise  from  any  lack  of  inherent  value  of  the 
service  performed,  but  from  the  fact  that  the  traffic  is  accessory  merely. 
The  rate  charged  for  the  passage  ticket  of  the  traveler  covers,  incident- 
ally, his  luggage,  so  that  the  latter  does  not  seem  to  produce  any  reve- 
nue at  all.  It  is  thus  lost  sight  of  in  the  returns  and  forgotten.  The 
enormous  importance  of  the  baggage  traffic  to  travelers,  however,  has 
compelled  railroads  to  adopt  comprehensive  and  far-reaching  methods 
for  handling  it.  It  is  not  a  matter  in  which  they  may  consult  their  own 
convenience.  Nor  have  they  sought  to  do  so.  Their  methods  generally 
are  in  harmony  with  the  extent  and  profitableness  of  the  passenger 
business  of  which  it  is  a  part. 

Travelers  may  reasonably  expect  carriers  to  adopt  a  system  of 
handling  baggage  which  will  subject  their  patrons  to  the  minimum  ex- 
penses and  trouble.  This  involves  among  other  things  the  attainment 
of  the  following  ends  : 

First  —  That  passengers  shall  be  inconvenienced  or  delayed  as  little 
as  possible  in  receiving,  checking  (billing)  and're-delivering  their  bag- 
gage. 

Second — That,  so  far  as  the  nature  of  the  route  and  the  extent  of 
the  traffic  warrant,  all  baggage  shall  be  checked  through  from  the  point 
where  a  passenger  purchases  his  ticket  to  his  destination,  and  that  at  all 
junctions  and  transfer  points  it  shall  be  attended  to  by  the  carrier  with- 
out the  intervention  of  the  passenger. 

Third  —  That  baggage  shall  go  forth  upon  the  same  train  as  the 
passenger  and  both  reach  their  destination  simultaneously. 

Fourth  —  That  the  passenger  shall,  when  he  delivers  his  luggage  to 
the  carrier,  be  given  a  receipt  or  token,  upon  presentation  of  which  the 
luggage  will  be  delivered  at  destination  without  the  personal  interven- 
tion of  the  passenger. 

Fifth  —  That  the  baggage  shall  be  carefully  and  intelligently 
guarded  and  its  good  condition  maintained  while  en  route,  and  that,  in 
the  event  it  goes  astray,  the  appliances  of  the  carrier  shall  be  such  as 
to  insure  its  prompt  recovery  and  transmission  to  the  owner. 


BAGGAGE  CHECKING  AND  DELIVERY.  145 

Sixth  —  That  the  carrier  shall  be  responsible  for  any  loss  or  damage 
the  baggage  may  sustain  while  in  his  possession  caused  by  his  neg- 
ligence, and  that  all  just  claims  shall  be  promptly  adjusted. 

Seventh — That  from  the  moment  the  baggage  passes  into  the  hands 
of  the  carrier  to  the  time  of  its  arrival  at  destination,  the  passenger 
shall  be  relieved  from  all  anxiety  concerning  it. 

The  foregoing  requirements  are,  in  the  main,  fairly  complied  with 
by  carriers  generally  the  world  over.  The  dissimilarity  of  conditions 
that  prevail  in  different  countries,  and,  in  many  cases,  lack  of  knowl- 
edge of  what  is  best,  prevent  facilities  being  uniformly  excellent.  Com- 
parisons show,  however,  that  no  particular  country  excels  in  every 
detail.  While  one  country  may  be  preeminent  in  one  particular,  it  will 
fall  short  in  another. 

CHECKING   SYSTEMS    AND    DELIVERY. 

Stated  briefly,  the  system  in  vogue  in  the  United  States  for  checking 
(billing)  baggage  is  as  follows :  The  railway  companies  provide,  in 
duplicate,  small  brass  plates,  tags  or  labels,  called  "  checks,"  stamped 
with  distinctive  numbers.  One  check  is  fastened  by  a  leathern  strap  to 
the  baggage  and  the  duplicate  given  to  the  passenger.  The  duplicate 
is  the  carrier's  receipt  for  the  property.  Upon  reaching  his  destination, 
the  traveler  surrenders  his  check  and  receives  his  baggage.  The 
means  the  carrier  employs  of  marking  the  baggage  with  its  destination 
are  as  follows :  To  each  station  on  the  line  of  a  railroad  a  distinctive 
number  is  given.  Thus,  its  Chicago  passenger  station  will,  we  will  say, 
be  No.  I.  When  baggage  is  received  for  transmission  to  that  city,  a 
small  pasteboard  tag  or  label,  marked  with  the  number  i,  is  slipped  on 
the  strap  that  holds  the  check.  This  method,  of  course,  applies  only 
to  business  beginning  and  ending  on  a  company's  own  lines,  called 
"local"  business.  Other  methods  are  adopted  for  baggage  passing 
over  two  or  more  roads,  which  is  called  "interline"  or  "through" 
business  ;  these  we  shall  notice  later. 

Stations  are  kept  supplied  with  local  checks  in  the  following 
manner ;  To  each  a  certain  number  of  checks  is  allotted,  say  for 
example,  checks  numbered  from  150  to  850.  These  are  charged  to  the 
agent  by  the  proper  official  (called  the  "general  baggage  agent") 
at  headquarters,  who  keeps  a  minute  of  each  check  so  supplied.  As 
fast  as  the  checks  are  taken  up  at  other  stations,  they  are  sent  to  the 
general  baggage  agent  and  by  him  forwarded  to  the  station  to  which 
they  belong  to  be  used  again.  This  process  is  forever  being  repeated. 
Under  this  plan  officials  in  charge  have  but  to  know  the  number  of  a 
check  attached  to  a  piece  of  baggage  to  be  able  to  tell  the  place  from 
which  it  was  checked,  also  the  date  and  train;  they  refer  to  their 
records  to  ascertain  the  station  at  which  the  check  was  issued,  and  from 
the  returns  rendered  ascertain  when  and  for  what  train  it  was  used. 
This  information  is  of  great  value  in  tracing  lost  baggage  and  locating 
damages  sustained  by  property  while  in  the  company's  possession. 

In  checking  interline  business,  the  details  are  somewhat  different. 
To  illustrate :  We  will  suppose  that  the  agent  at  Boston  desires  to 
check  a  package  over  certain  lines  to  San  Francisco.  To  do  this  he 
uses  a  metal  check,  such  as  described,  on  one  side  of  which  is  stamped 
Boston  to  San  Francisco,  the  initials  of  the  lines  over  which  the  bag- 


146  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

gage  is  to  pass,  and  the  number  of  the  check.  The  reverse  side  of  the 
check  reads  San  Francisco  to  Boston  and  the  same  initials  and  number. 
When  the  agent  at  San  Francisco  receives  this  check  he  retains  it  until 
occasion  for  its  use  in  sending  baggage  to  Boston  arises.  These  are 
known  as  "reversible"  checks,  and  are  supplied  only  to  stations  at 
which  interline  tickets  are  sold.  To  provide  for  those  cases  to  which 
the  reversible  check  is  not  applicable,  a  device  known  as  the  "  shell  " 
check  has  come  into  use.  This  gives  promise  of  displacing  the  reversi- 
ble check  and  becoming  the  general  method  of  checking  all  interline 
baggage.  The  "shell"  consists  of  a  piece  of  metal  with  its  edges  so 
bent  as  to  hold  a  card.  It  is  attached  to  a  strap  and  has  impressed 
upon  it  the  name  of  the  company  to  which  it  belongs,  and  a  distinctive 
number  for  identification.  The  card  checks  used  in  conjunction  with 
it  are  also  numbered  distinctively ;  they  show  the  point  of  departure, 
route  and  destination  of  the  baggage,  and  are  made  in  duplicate,  one 
being  inserted  in  the  shell  and  the  other  given  to  the  passenger.  When 
the  shell  is  detached  from  the  baggage  at  its  destination,  it  is  sent  to 
the  official  of  the  company  that  owns  it,  who  forwards  it  to  the  station 
to  which  it  is  assigned  in  the  same  manner  as  ordinary  checks  described 
above. 

The  foregoing  methods  of  checking  baggage  originated  in  North 
America,  and  are  in  the  main  confined  to  it.  In  other  countries  differ- 
ent systems  are  in  vogue. 

In  England  no  receipt,  or  token,  is  usually  given  the  passenger  in 
exchange  for  his  luggage.  The  railways  simply  paste  upon  the  pack- 
age a  label,  which  has  printed  upon  it  the  name  of  the  station  to  which 
it  is  destined.  Arrived  at  his  journey's  end,  the  traveler  points  out  his 
property  and  it  is  delivered  to  him.  The  practice  of  billing  baggage 
through  over  connecting  lines  is  not  generally  prevalent  there,  the 
passenger  himself  attending  to  the  transfer.  To  Americans  this  plan 
seems  primitive  and  to  possess  no  favorable  feature  except  its  simpli- 
city. Nevertheless  there  is  no  local  outcry  against  it,  and  we  are 
assured  that  instances  of  fraud  upon  railway  companies  (which  would 
seem  to  be  so  easy  of  perpetration)  are  very  rare. 

On  the  continent  of  Europe  the  custom  is  for  the  carrier  to  give  the 
passenger  a  receipt  for  his  baggage.  This  receipt  is  numbered  and 
specifies  the  weight  of  the  baggage.  A  way-bill  numbered  correspond- 
ingly to  the  receipt,  and  indicating  the  destination  of  the  baggage,  is 
pasted  on  the  package.  Another  paper,  corresponding  to  the  two 
mentioned,  is  retained  as  a  record  by  the  agent  who  forwards  the  bag- 
gage. The  presentation  of  the  receipt  is  accepted  as  evidence  of 
ownership  and  authority  for  delivery  of  the  baggage.  The  plan  is 
simple  and  ingenious. 

The  criticism  upon  the  European  method  of  handling  baggage  is 
the  requirement  that  all  baggage,  no  matter  how  light  or  trifling,  shall 
be  weighed.  This,  it  is  claimed,  is  unnecessarily  cumbersome  and 
tedious.  It  is  difficult  for  us  to  understand  why,  when  a  piece  of  bag- 
gage is  palpably  under  the  weight  prescribed  for  free  allowance,  it  need 
be  weighed. 

The  method  adopted  on  the  continent  of  Europe  for  billing  baggage 
is  superior  in  many  respects  to  that  in  vogue  in  the  United  States,  if  we 
eliminate  therefrom  the  vexatious  practice  of  weighing  every  package 


BAGGAGE  CHECKING  AND  DELIVERY.  147 

presented  for  carriage,  which  need  only  be  done,  it  is  apparent,  when 
it  manifestly  exceeds  the  free  allowance.  The  blanks  used  in  billing 
in  Europe  can  be  kept  securely  with  less  trouble  and  expense  than  the 
metal  checks  we  use.  They  are  less  likely  to  be  lost  or  stolen.  They 
can  be  made  more  difficult  to  counterfeit.  They  cost  less  originally. 
They  involve  less  labor  in  accounting.  They  can  not  so  easily  be 
attached  to,  or  detached  from,  packages  by  unauthorized  persons. 
Finally  they  are  simpler  in  many  other  ways.  Our  metal  checks  can 
be  easily  detached  from  their  leathern  thongs  by  the  evil  disposed,  and 
other  checks  of  which  they  have  duplicates  substituted  therefor  ;  the 
metal  check  is  easily  counterfeited  by  the  crudest  machinist ;  it  is  cum- 
bersome and  not  comparable  to  a  diminutive,  clean  and  neatly  engraved 
slip  of  paper  which  the  traveler  may  carry  in  his  purse. 

Under  the  paper  check  system  it  is  possible  to  so  simplify  the  work 
that  all  the  forwarding  agent  has  to  do  is  to  insert  in  the  blanks  the 
number  of  the  station  to  which  the  baggage  is  destined.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  metal  check  is  imperishable.  But  this  merit  is  off-set  by  the 
objections  named  and  by  the  fact  that  it  is  costly  in  the  first  instance, 
while  its  re-distribution  and  the  accounting  it  necessitates  involve  con- 
siderable expense. 

Under  the  metal  check  system  a  serious  cause  of  loss  and  annoyance 
is  the  "  mismatching"  of  checks,  by  which  is  meant  the  attachment  of 
a  check  bearing  a  certain  number  to  a  package  and  the  giving  of  a 
check  bearing  a  different  number  to  the  passenger.  This  mismatching 
is  usually  brought  about  by  mistakes  in  arranging  and  assorting  the 
checks  for  distribution  and  use.  Under  the  paper  check  system,  hun- 
dreds or  even  thousands  of  them  may  be  bound  together  in  book  form, 
each  bill  or  check  and  its  corelative  forms  being  numbered  consecu- 
tively by  the  printer.  In  this  way  no  two  sets  of  blanks  could  ever  by 
any  possible  means  bear  the  same  number,  so  that  the  danger  of  mis- 
matching would  not  exist. 

CLAIMS    FOR    DAMAGES  :    LIMITATION   OF    LIABILITY. 

Under  the  laws  of  all  highly  civilized  countries  the  carrier  is  held 
to  be  an  insurer  of  the  baggage  he  transports  so  far  as  losses  or  dam- 
ages occur  through  his  neglect  or  carelessness.  To  this  extent  carriers 
are  liable  pecuniarily  for  the  safe  transmission  of  such  property. 

In  addition  to  the  dangers  from  accident  and  wreck  that  must 
always  menace  baggage,  the  carrier  has  to  contend  with  conditions 
thrust  upon  him  by  his  patrons.  Thus,  many  packages  delivered  to  him 
are  unreasonably  bulky  or  heavy,  insecurely  fastened,  or  too  frail  to 
withstand  the  ordinary  usages  of  travel.  In  the  operations  of  business 
a  single  porter  is  generally  called  upon  to  handle  articles,  hence  if  the 
package  be  unwieldy  or  unduly  weighty  it  must  of  necessity  receive 
rougher  usage  than  would  otherwise  occur.  Moreover,  the  traffic  must 
from  its  nature  be  handled  hastily.  There  is  no  time  for  deliberation  ; 
for  the  studying  of  processes.  Another  danger  that  menaces  baggage, 
for  which  the  carrier  is  responsible,  is  the  venality  and  carelessness  of 
employes  and  others  having  access  to  it. 

These  and  other  dangers  that  menace  the  luggage  traffic  necessitate 
the  establishment  by  carriers  of  comprehensive  methods  for  protecting 
such  property,  for  discovering  it  when  missing  and  for  making  prompt 


148  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

reparation  to  the  owner  in  the  event  of  loss  or  damage.  The  practice 
in  the  United  States  when  baggage  is  missing  is  to  send  a  description 
of  it  to  each  station  where  it  may  have  inadvertently  been  carried, 
with  instructions  to  agents  to  make  careful  search  for  the  lost  article. 
If  this  search  is  thorough,  it  results  in  the  discovery  of  the  property, 
unless  it  has  been  destroyed  or  removed  from  the  company's  premises. 
Agents  are  also  required  to  report  periodically  to  the  carrier  all  prop- 
erty at  their  stations  not  called  for,  or  for  which  they  have  no  bill  ;  also 
all  property  claimed  but  not  on  hand,  and  which,  therefore,  has  pre- 
sumably been  lost  or  delivered  at  a  wrong  station  ;  all  property  that  has 
been  damaged  in  transit,  and  so  on.  Examination  and  comparison  of 
returns  of  this  nature  facilitate  the  discovery  of  missing  articles  and 
the  elucidation  of  the  facts  relating  to  those  lost  or  damaged. 

In  the  conduct  of  the  baggage  traffic,  many  articles  remain  in  the 
possession  of  the  carrier  not  claimed  by  their  owners.  But,  as  a  rule, 
they  have  little  value.  They  usually  consist  of  cheap  articles  of 
clothing  which  owners  will  not  put  themselves  to  inconvenience  to  re- 
claim, such  as  umbrellas,  canes,  wraps,  books,  periodicals,  etc.,  etc. 
The  law  generally  requires  that  unclaimed  property  shall  be  held  by 
the  carrier  for  a  certain  length  of  time,  and  in  some  cases  advertised, 
after  which  it  may  be  sold  by  the  company. 

The  limitation  of  the  carrier's  pecuniary  liability  for  baggage  lost 
or  damaged  varies  in  different  countries,  but  in  none  is  the  carrier 
responsible  for  property  carried  as  baggage  whichls  not  properly  such. 

In  England  the  responsibility  of  the  carrier  is  limited  to  $50  by  law 
for  such  articles  as  jewelry,  silks,  laces  and  furs.  In  France  he  is 
liable  for  such  jewelry  and  moneys  as  passengers  may  have  in  their 
possession,  required  by  the  wants  of  the  journey.  In  Italy  and  Austria, 
if  the  value  of  the  baggage  is  not  expressly  stated  when  delivered  to  the 
carrier,  the  passenger  can  only  claim  compensation  for  its  loss  or  dam- 
age at  a  specified  rate  per  pound  ;  but  the  carrier  is  compelled  to  insure 
the  baggage  if  requested,  upon  being  paid  a  fee  therefor.  In  Spain 
there  is  no  limit  to  the  carrier's  liability.  But  if  a  passenger,  whose 
baggage  contains  jewelry,  precious  stones,  bank  notes,  moneys  and 
securities,  does  not  exhibit  them  and  state  their  value,  the  carrier  is 
not  responsible  for  their  theft  or  loss.  In  the  United  States  the  respon- 
sibility of  the  railroads  for  baggage  is  practically  unlimited  ;  nor  have 
they  the  power  to  limit  their  liability  except  by  formal  and  specific  con- 
tract with  the  owner  of  the  property.  If,  however,  the  passenger  de- 
ceives the  carrier  as  to  the  value  of  his  baggage,  the  latter's  responsi- 
bility as  an  insurer  is  discharged  ;  but  it  should  be  noted  in  this  connec- 
tion that  unless  the  carrier  inquires  as  to  the  value  of  the  property  and 
the  passenger  fails  to  disclose  it,  this  is  no  fraud  upon  the  carrier  and 
his  responsibility  remains.  Thus  a  lady  has  been  awarded  $75,000  by 
courts  for  laces  and  jewels,  claimed  by  her  to  have  been  lost  while  in 
the  hands  of  the  carrier. 

RESTRICTIONS  OF  QUANTITY. 

The  quantity  of  baggage  a  passenger  may  have  carried  without 
extra  payment  varies  in  different  countries.  On  the  continent  of  Europe 
it  averages  about  56  pounds.  In  England  the  first-class  passenger  is 
allowed  120  pounds;  in  the  United  States  it  is  generally  150  pounds. 


BAGGAGE  CHECKING  AND  DELIVERY.  149 

For  baggage  over  and  above  this  the  passenger  is  called  upon  to  pay 
a  sum  in  addition  to  his  passage  money.  The  rate  varies  according 
to  circumstances  not  only  in  different  countries  but  in  different  parts 
of  the  same  country. 

There  has  been  in  the  past  much  difficulty  experienced  in  the  United 
States  in  the  collection  of  charges  for  excess  baggage,  i.  e.,  baggage  in 
excess  of  the  amount  that  may  be  carried  without  extra  charge.  This 
has  arisen  principally  from  the  attempt  to  compel  payment  at  the  start- 
ing point.  The  time  available  for  weighing  and  billing  articles  and 
collecting  therefor,  has,  in  consequence  of  the  haste  of  passengers,  been 
found  inadequate  for  the  thorough  performance  of  the  duty.  Hence 
more  or  less  of  the  revenue  that  ought  to  have  accrued  to  carriers  for 
services  rendered  in  this  direction  has  been  lost.  With  time  and  in- 
creased experience  the  methods  of  carriers  have  become  more  elastic 
and  a  remedy  for  the  defect  has  been  found  in  the  adoption  of  a  rule 
that  permits  or  enforces  collection  at  the  place  to  which  the  baggage  is 
destined.  Excess  baggage  upon  which  the  charges  are  not  prepaid 
is  marked  "  C.  O.  D."  (Collect  on  delivery).  This  sign  is  the  mandate 
to  the  receiving  agent  to  make  the  collection. 

As  the  business  of  the  baggage  department  grows,  methods  for 
collecting  the  earnings  from  excess  baggage  must  be  such  as  to  permit 
of  all  .this  revenue  being  garnered.  This  can  not  be  done  if  the 
charges  must  be  paid  arbitrarily  at  one  end  of  the  route.  The  arrange- 
ments for  collection  must  be  as  flexible  as  in  the  case  of  freight  traffic. 
It  may  be  desirable  to  have  charges  prepaid,  but  whenever  property  in 
the  possession  of  the  carrier  exceeds  the  value  of  the  charge  he  makes, 
he  can  not  refuse  to  allow  such  charge  to  follow  the  goods  to  the  point 
of  delivery. 

NEEDS  OF  THE  BAGGAGE  SERVICE. 

In  the  handling  of  baggage,  as  in  all  other  matters  connected  with 
transportation  interests,  the  revenue  that  accrues  therefrom  should 
determine  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  facilities  afforded.  It  does  not 
matter  that  this  revenue  is  indirect  ;  that  it  is  embraced  in  the  passen- 
ger's ticket  ;  it  is  none  the  less  real  on  that  account.  As  to  the  justness 
of  such  an  arrangement  men  will  differ  as  their  interests  appear.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  however,  there  is  no  equity  in  charging  a  passenger 
who  has  no  baggage  the  same  rate  as  one  that  has.  The  custom  is, 
however,  firmly  established  and  will,  it  is  probable,  never  be  changed, 
or  if  changed  the  process  will  be  slow.  In  this  connection  it  must  be 
remembered  that  not  only  is  the  carrier  put  to  expense  in  providing 
facilities  and  men  for  handling  the  baggage  at  the  point  of  departure, 
en  route  and  at  destination,  but  he  is  also  compelled  to  insure  the 
property,  so  that  the  outlay  is  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances 
very  great. 

The  merging  of  the  earnings  for  the  transportation  of  luggage  with 
those  for  the  transportation  of  passengers  works  unfortunately  for  the 
baggage  department.  This  department,  in  consequence  of  this  arrange- 
ment, does  not  receive  the  encouragement  that  it  would  if  the  results 
of  its  efforts  were  apparent  from  day  to  day  as  they  are  in  other 
departments  of  the  service.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  force 
engaged  in  this  branch  would  be  stimulated  by  such  an  expression  of 


15°  WOKLUS  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

usefulness.  Men  of  the  highest  ability  in  its  service  would  be  greatly 
multiplied  and  appliances  of  the  most  comprehensive  order  would  be 
employed,  to  add  to  the  usefulness  and  earnings  capacity  of  the  depart- 
ment ;  its  wants  would  be  studied  with  exhaustive  particularity  as  they 
are  in  the  case  of  the  passenger  and  the  freight  business,  with  a  view 
to  stimulating  its  growth. 

The  baggage  of  railroads  exceeds,  generally,  their  express  traffic. 
It  is  also  of  much  greater  value  relatively.  Yet,  in  its  handling  only 
a  few  officials  are  employed,  while  in  the  conduct  of  an  equal  amount  of 
express  business  many  supervising  managers  of  the  highest  business 
capacity  known  are  engaged  and  paid  salaries  commensurate  there- 
with. 

Carriers,  ?is  well  as  those  in  charge  of  the  baggage  department  of 
railways,  would  be  stimulated  directly  and  indirectly  by  a  better  under- 
standing of  the  earnings  capacity  of  the  baggage  traffic.  Upon  the 
profitableness  or  otherwise  of  the  baggage  traffic,  measurably  depends 
the  facilities  to  be  accorded. 

As  to  how  the  earnings  of  the  baggage  department  may  be  ascer- 
tained, men  will  differ.  A  safe  division  as  between  passengers  and 
baggage  would  accord  to  each  a  proportion  based  on  the  relation  that 
the  cost  of  each  bears  to  the  whole.  As  the  two  kinds  of  service  are 
inseparable,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  their  earnings  capacity  is 
relative. 


PASSENGER  TICKETS;    DEFECTS   OF  EXISTING  SYSTEMS; 
SPECIAL  CONTRACTS  AND  CONDITIONS;  LIMI- 
TATIONS OF  TIME  ;  THROUGH  TICKETS  ; 
COMMUTATION  TICKETS  ;  ZONE 
TARIFFS,  ETC. 


GEO.      H.      HEAFFORD,      GENERAL      PASSENGER     AND     TICKET     AGENT 
CHICAGO,    MILWAUKEE    &    ST.    PAUL    RAILWAY. 


There  are  four  principal  classes  of  passage  ticket  transportation 
sold  by  the  railway  companies  of  the  United  States  of  America,  viz  : 

A.  Local  tickets,  good  for  a  single  one  way  or  round  trip  passage  of 
"bearer"  between  points  on  the  road  issuing  such  tickets. 

B.  Commutation  tickets,  good  for  one  person,  or  for  a  number  of 
persons,  for  a  specified  number  of  rides  or  for  a  particular  period,  to  be 
used  principally  between  large  cities  and  suburban  towns  or  villages  by 
residents  of  the  latter. 

C.  Mileage  tickets — in  books  of  500  miles,  1,000  miles  or  2,000 
miles,  according  to  price — good  for  "bearer"  (if  required  by  state  law), 
or  for  use  by  one  person  whose  name  must  be  specified  and  signed  to 
the  terms  prescribed  by  the  railway  company  issuing  the  ticket.  This 
form  of  ticket  is  frequently  made  good  for  passage  over  connecting 
roads  by  arrangement  between  the  roads  interested,  and  settlement  is 


PASSENGER  TICKETS.  151 

made  for  coupons  or  detachments  of  mileage  collected  by  the  road  on 
which  the  mileage  ticket  is  honored  for  passage,  in  accordance  with  the 
usual  methods  of  accounting.  In  brief,  the  road  collecting  the  coupons 
sends  them  to  the  issuing  road  at  the  end  of  each  month  with  a  bill 
which,  when  examined  and  found  correct,  is  passed  to  the  treasurer  of 
the  issuing  road  for  payment. 

D.  Coupon  tickets,  which,  as  distinguished  from  local  tickets,  are 
honored  for  passage  over  such  other  closely  or  remotely  connecting 
roads  as  arrangement  may  be  made  by  the  lines  interested  for  the  pur- 
pose of  interchanging  passenger  traffic. 

This  form  of  ticket  is  available  for  booking  or  ticketing  a  passenger 
from  any  one  point  to  any  other  point  on  the  American  continent,  or 
from  any  one  point  on  the  American  continent  to  certain  points  beyond 
the  Atlantic  or  Pacific  ocean,  and  its  desirability  and  convenience  is 
appreciated  because  of  the  fact  that  the  possessor  of  a  through  coupon 
ticket  can  check  his  luggage  from  starting  point  to  destination,  and  also 
avoid  the  necessity  of  purchasing  local  tickets  at  any  intermediate 
point  of  his  journey.  In  addition,  passengers  taking  a  long  journey  by 
a  slightly  circuitous  route  can  frequently  save  money  by  the  purchase 
of  a  through  ticket,  as  the  sums  of  the  local  rates  are  often  in  excess  of 
a  through  rate,  which  is  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  in  America  the 
customary  rule  is  to  make  applicable  to  slightly  circuitous  routes  the 
through  rate  made  by  a  more  direct  or  shorter  line.  This  is. the  result 
of  competition,  which  is  practically  unhampered  in  the  United  States  of 
America.  State  laws  frequently  control  the  price  to  be  charged  for 
tickets  sold  for  passage  originating  and  terminating  within  state  boun- 
daries. The  law  of  the  American  Congress  controls  interstate  traffic 
to  the  extent  of  requiring  publicity  of  rates  made  for  such  traffic  and 
that  no  discriminations  shall  exist  between  persons.  In  other  words, 
when  rates  are  published,  those  rates  must  be  observed,  and  no  prefer- 
ence in  rates  of  fare  can  be  shown  any  person.  By  a  most  complete 
system  of  accounting,  the  adjustment  of  accounts  for  coupon  tickets 
sold  and  interchanged  is  made  at  the  end  of  each  month  by  and  between 
the  respective  railway  companies  honoring  each  other's  tickets,  and 
drafts  are  made  for  balances. 

All  coupons  sold  by  the  issuing  road  are  reported  to  the  roads  over 
which  they  read  for  passage,  whether  collected  by  the  latter  or  not.  It 
will  be  noticed  that  in  this  respect  the  mode  of  adjustment  is  exactly 
the  reverse  of  the  method  of  settlement  for  mileage  coupons  inter- 
changed :  this  for  obvious  reasons. 

Local  tickets  in  this  country  are  usually  printed  on  cardboard  and 
are  inexpensive.  The  printed  matter  thereon  covers  simply  the  name  of 
the  issuing  road,  the  selling  and  destination  point,  the  fact  that  the 
ticket  is  limited  to  use  within  a  specified  period,  a  consecutive  number, 
and  the  fac-simile  of  the  signature  of  the  general  passenger  and  ticket 
agent. 

Commutation  tickets  are  usually  printed  from  an  engraved  plate  if 
used  in  card  form,  showing  number  of  rides  to  be  punched  by  conduc- 
tor, and  even  when  the  form  of  ticket  provides  for  a  coupon  to  be 
detached  for  each  ride,  the  ticket  and  its  coupons  are  of  a  somewhat 
elaborate  design  to  prevent  counterfeiting  and  other  forms  of  abuse  and 
misuse. 


152  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

Mileage  tickets  of  the  form  most  frequently  used  are  provided  with 
a  cover  (on  which  is  printed  the  regulations  and  terms  governing  the 
sale  and  use  of-  such  tickets)  and  enclosing  a  strip  with  the  transverse 
lines,  each  line  representing  one  mile,  or  pages  of  coupons  for  detach- 
ment by  conductors,  each  line  or  coupon  showing  on  its  face  a  consecu- 
tive number  corresponding  with  the  one  on  the  cover,  and  a  number  to 
which  reference  is  made  by  the  conductor  in  detaching  strips  or  cou- 
pons for  the  distance  to  be  traveled  by  the  passenger  on  each  journey. 

Coupon  tickets  are,  as  a  rule,  patterned  after  a  form  approved  by  a 
committee  of  experts,  members  of  the  American  Association  of  General 
Passenger  and  Ticket  Agents.  The  contract  portion  of  the  ticket  and 
its  coupons  are  printed  on  one  piece  of  perforated  paper  so  that  each 
coupon  can  be  detached  by  the  conductor  of  the  road  over  which  the 
ticket  reads  good  for  passage.  The  limit  of  use  is  expressed  by  printed 
figures  in  the  margin,  which  are  punched  by  the  selling  agent. 

Were  there  no  dishonest  people  in  the  world  there  would  be  no 
ground  for  unfavorable  criticism  of  the  almost  perfect  system  of  Ameri- 
can railway  tickets. 

Up  to  this  date  all  the  efforts  to  prepare  a  form  of  railway  ticket 
which  cannot  be  altered  and  misused  have  failed.  "Safety  paper"  and 
"indelible  ink"  have  proved  useless.  Punch  marks  used  to  indicate 
dates  of  limitation,  have  been  filled  up  and  new  ones  made  with  a  suc- 
cess which  almost  defies  detection.  Written  and  printed  "  destinations  " 
to  short-haul  points  have  been  changed  to  long-haul  points  with  a  skill 
that  evades  the  scrutiny  of  the  most  careful  and  experienced  train  con- 
ductors, and  all  of  this  is  done  at  the  expense  of  railway  revenue. 

There  are  in  the  United  States  of  America  one  or  more  organiza- 
tions styled  "  ticket  brokers,"  which  prey  upon  railroads  and  the  travel- 
ing public.  Their  mission,  as  announced  by  themselves,  is  to  stand  as 
"middlemen"  between  the  railroads  and  the  passengers,  to  sell  tickets 
or  transportation  at  less  than  the  rates  fixed  by  state  and  national  laws. 
This  the  railroad  companies  are  forbidden  to  do.  The  methods  adopted 
by  these  organizations  to  accomplish  their  purpose  are  based  wholly 
upon  the  inability  of  the  roads  to  protect  the  prescribed  forms  of  tickets 
from  alteration  and  abuse  by  that  portion  of  the  traveling  community 
willing  to  participate  in  these  illegitimate  methods  of  the  "  middlemen," 
which  also  frequently  involve  forgery  in  connection  with  mileage  and 
other  contract  tickets.  The  patrons  of  the  brokers  make  or  save  a 
dollar  or  two  on  each  transaction,  and  the  brokers  themselves  live  and 
thrive  on  the  fruit  of  the  crimes,  jointly  committed  by  themselves  and 
their  patrons,  and  by  which  the  railway  companies  are  robbed  of  their 
just  revenue. 

Such  a  lamentable  condition  of  affairs  would  not  be  permitted  to 
exist  in  any  other  country.  Our  nearest  nefghbor — the  Dominion  of 
Canada — will  not  permit  it  for  an  instant. 

Several  of  the  United  States  have  passed  laws  which,  if  enforced, 
would  break  up  and  totally  destroy  the  organization  of  "  ticket  brokers," 
but  the  technicalities  of  the  laws  have  prevented  them  from  becoming 
effective.  Only  a  national  law — similar  to  that  of  Canada — can  reach 
these  people.  Think  of  it  !  Less  than  five  hundred  persons,  who  call 
themselves  "public  benefactors"  absolutely  prevent  the  maintenance 
of  tariff  rates  by  the  railway  companies  of  a  country  which  has  a  popu 


PASSENGER  TICKETS.  153 

lation  of  nearly  seventy  millions,  and  this  in  direct  contempt  of  the 
laws  of  the  land.     It  is  a  sight  to  make  the  gods  weep. 

Nearly  all  special  contracts  and  conditions  attached  to  tickets  pre- 
scribing by  whom  or  how  such  tickets  shall  be  used  for  passage,  and 
nearly  all  limitations  of  time  for  other  than  commutation  tickets  could 
be  dispensed  with,  and  more  or  less  annoyance  avoided,  where  the 
so-called  "  ticket  brokers "  enjoined  from  establishing  markets  for 
stolen,  lost  and  forged  tickets. 

A  ticket  is,  in  substance,  a  form  of  transportation  which  entitles  the 
original  purchaser  to  travel  on  the  trains  of  the  railway  company  in 
accordance  with  the  terms  printed  on  the  ticket  which  is,  in  effect,  a 
receipt  for  the  money  he  has  paid  to  the  railway  company  through  its 
legitimate  agent  or  representative. 

A  passage  ticket  is  legally  and  in  equity  the  property  of  the  orig- 
inal purchaser  only  to  the  extent  that  a  contract  between  two  persons 
is  the  property  of  either  one  of  them.  A  contract  cannot,  under  usual 
conditions,  be  sold  to  a  third  person  by  one  of  the  parties  thereto,  nor  its 
obligations  or  privileges  assigned  to  another,  without  the  consent  of 
both  parties  to  the  contract.  A  passage  ticket,  unless  issued  good 
for  the  transportation  of  bearer,  is  in  the  nature  of  a  contract  between 
the  issuing  railway  and  the  purchaser,  under  which  the  railway  agrees 
to  carry  the  purchaser  only  from  the  initial  to  destination  point.  The 
railway  company  does  not  contract  to  carry  such  person  a  portion  of  the 
distance,  and  another  person,  or  perhaps  two  or  three  other  persons, 
intermediate  parts  of  the  distance  covered  by  such  passage  ticket.  To 
impose  such  an  obligation  on  the  railway  issuing  the  ticket  would  be  an 
injustice,  in  that  its  legal  rates  and  revenue  between  intermediate 
points,  or  from  any  intermediate  point  on  such  ticket  to  the  destination 
thereof,  would  be  interfered  with.  In  disposi;ig  of  a  ticket  partially 
used  to  be  used  a  portion  of  the  distance  by  another  person,  the  original 
purchaser  of  the  ticket  assumes  to  dictate  to  and  control  for  the  railway 
issuing  the  ticket  the  price  it  shall  receive  for  the  transportation  of  the 
second  person  between  two  points  which  are  not  the  initial  and  destina- 
tion pomts  named  on  the  ticket,  for  the  reason  that  the  rate  from  the 
point  from  which  the  original  purchaser  started  to  the  intermediate 
point  of  the  ticket,  which  was  his  actual  destination,  and  the  rate  from 
such  intermediate  point  to  the  destination  of  the  ticket  or  the  point  to 
which  it  was  used  by  the  second  passenger,  may  be,  and  usually  are 
together  greater  in  amount  than  the  through  rate  at  which  the  ticket 
was  sold.  Equity  and  justice  are  supposed  to  be  embodied  in  any  law 
regulating  mutual  relations,  transactions  or  contracts  between  any  two 
persons,  and  it  cannot,  therefore,  be  consistently  advocated  that  a  con- 
tract for  transportation  can  be  so  manipulated  as  to  work  an  injustice 
and  injury  to  one  of  the  parties  to  such  contract. 

The  railway  company  will  redeem  (at  the  original  price  paid)  any 
ticket  which  the  purchaser  is  not  able  to  use,  or  the  railway  company 
will  give  him  in  cash  the  proportionate  value  of  a  partly  used  ticket. 
But  the  "ticket  broker"  offers  a  premium  for  rascality,  and,  in  many 
instances  the  devil  gets  his  dues. 

As  to  railway  tariffs  much  can  be  said,  but  my  time  and  space  are 
limited,  and  so  many  conditions  enter  into  the  question  that  no  plan  is 
practicable  which  can  cover  the  vast  extent  of  country  included   in  the 


154  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

United  States  of  America.  So  long  as  state  legislatures  control  the 
portions  of  a  railway  system  within  their  boundaries,  and  no  two  states 
traversed  by  the  same  railway  system  are  agreed  as  to  what  is  fair 
compensation,  it  would  seem  wise  that  no  attempt  be  made  to  legislate 
upon  the  question.  The  law  of  supply  and  demand,  with  free  and  un- 
restricted competition,  is  enough  to  insure  reasonable  rates  and  corre- 
sponding improvements  in  operating  and  traffic  facilities.  The  Hun- 
garian Zone  theory  cannot  be  made  practical  in  the  United  States.  No 
"free  and  enlightened"  people  would  submit  to  the  inferior  accommo- 
dations furnished  by  the  railways  under  Hungarian  government  con- 
trol, nor  will  such  a  people  be  satisfied  with  any  system  which  is  not 
based  upon  a  certain  rate  per  miie  traveled,  regardless  of  the  com- 
paratively short  distances  encompassed  within  any  zone  circle. 

Having  dealt  technically  with  the  topic  assigned  to  me,  I  feel  that  I 
may,  perhaps,  trespass  on  your  time  to  add  a  few  paragraphs  of  a 
general  character.  Ours  is  a  new  country,  but  our  railway  people  are 
progressive.  The  exhibits  of  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio,  Pennsylvania, 
New  York  Central,  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul,  and  Canadian 
Pacific  Railways  at  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition  prove  my  asser- 
tion. 

I  believe  no  country  in  the  Old  World  can  furnish  such  luxurious 
and  comfortable  passenger  trains — including  sleeping  car,  parlor  car, 
and  dining  car  equipment — as  travelers  in  North  America  are  provided 
with. 

The  electric  light  in  sleeping  car  berths  by  which  persons  troubled 
wiih  insomnia  can  read  all  night  long  without  annoyance  to  fellow- 
passengers  is,  I  believe,  only  used  in  this  country,  and  is  appreciated 
more  thoroughly  than  any  other  recent  invention.  Gas  has  superseded 
oil  and  candles  in  parlor  cars  and  ordinary  coaches,  and  steam  heat 
has  conquered  the  old  car  stove. 

Dining  cars  furnish  the  choicest  menus,  and  no  first-class  traveler 
begrudges  the  single  dollar  paid  for  food  which  if  served  a  la  carte  at 
world's  fair  prices  would  deplete  his  purse  to  the  extent  of  three  times 
the  cost  of  his  table  d'hote  meal  taken  en  route.  As  a  rule  there  are 
no  profits  in  furnishing  dining  car  service,  but  the  advertisement  for  the 
lines  which  conduct  them  properly  serves  to  bring  revenue  from  the 
passenger  traffic  desirous  of  creature  comforts,  and  the  time  saved  in 
not  stopping  for  meals  at  stations  is  worth  considering  in  preparing 
schedules  for  long  distance  trains  run  at  a  high  rate  of  speed  to  accom- 
modate the  exacting  American  traveler  who  demands  from  railway 
companies  three  points  of  perfection,  viz.  :  Rapid  transit,  absolute 
comfort,  and  immunity  from  accident. 

The  American  system  of  handling  and  checking  baggage  can  not 
be  improved  upon. 

A  passenger  can  check  his  trunks  from  his  room  at  the  Fifth  Avenue 
Hotel  in  New  York  city  and  have  them  placed  in  his  apartments  at  the 
Palace  Hotel  in  San  Francisco  without  having  to  watch  their  transfer 
at  any  point  en  route.  He  has  only  to  purchase  the  passage  ticket  ; 
the  little  brass  check  with  its  leather  strap  does  the  rest. 

In  a  thousand  details  of  railway  enterprise  we  so-called  yankees 
lead  the  procession.  In  some  few  things  we  are  yet  behind  our  old 
world  friends,  but  give  us  a  few  years  more  to  create  a  population  with 


POLICE  POWERS  OF  TRAIN  OFFICIALS.  1 55 

which  to  fill  up  our  now  sparsely  settled  broad  stretches  of  land,  which 
in  turn  will  create  a  better  revenue  for  our  train  service,  and  we  will 
then  endeavor  to  show  our  friends  from  across  the  Atlantic  ocean  that 
we  have  either  adopted  some  of  their  methods,  which  are  now  better 
than  ours,  or  we  will  have  improved  upon  them  to  such  an  extent  that 
they  may  be  willing  to  accept  our  ideas. 

If  he  who  makes  two  blades  of  grass  grow  where  but  one  grew 
before  is  a  public  benefactor,  is  he  not  doubly  entitled  to  the  plaudits 
of  the  world  who  abridges  distance,  lessens  risk  of  life,  and  cheapens 
transportation  ? 

To  accomplish  these  results  is  the  proud  mission  of  each  of  us  who 
in  any  way  is  connected  with  the  master  profession  which  makes  the 
"wheels  go  round." 


POLICE  POWERS  OF  RAILWAY  TRAIN  OFFICIALS  ;  THE  BEST 
MEANS  OF  GUARDING  AGAINST  FRAUDS  ON  THE 
CARRIER  AND  AGAINST  INJURY  TO  PASS- 
ENGERS BY  ACCIDENT  OR  MISTAKE. 


R.    C.    RICHARDS,    GENERAL    CLAIM    AGENT    CHICAGO    AND    NORTH 
WESTERN    RAILWAY    CO. 


The  subject  which  has  been  assigned  me  can  be  best  discussed 
under  three  separate  heads. 

First.  The  police  powers  of  railway  train  officials. 

The  legislatures  in  all  but  twelve  of  the  states  of  this  Union  have 
by  special  enactment  invested  the  conductors  of  all  trains  upon  which 
passengers  are  carried  with  police  authority,  for  the  purpose  of  keep- 
ing good  order  on  the  trains,  the  prevention  of  annoyance  and  insult  to 
passengers  by  persons  who  are  intoxicated  or  otherwise  unfit  to  ride  on 
the  trains,  and  especially  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the  fleecing  of 
passengers  by  the  three  card  monte  game  and  other  gambling  devices. 
Generally  the  authority  is  given  the  conductors,  in  the  acts  referred  to, 
to  eject  at  any  place  where  the  offense  is  committed  persons  who  are 
guilty  of  any  disorderly  conduct,  of  the  use  of  obscene  language  or  of 
attempting  gambling,  provision  being  made,  however,  in  some  of  the 
statutes  that  the  conductor  must  tender  back  to  the  person  ejected  the 
unearned  fare  paid  by  him.  In  this  particular  the  law  in  relation  to 
the  ejectment  of  persons  from  trains  was  changed,  as  previous  to  the 
enactment  of  these  statutes  the  ejectment  could  only  be  made  at  a 
regular  stopping  place  or,  in  some  of  the  states,  opposite  or  near  a 
dwelling  house.  By  the  same  statute  in  many  of  the  states  authority 
was  generally  conferred  on  the  conductors  or  employes  of  passenger 
trains  to  arrest  any  one  who  committed  a  misdemeanor  or  crime  on 
such  trains,  with  the  proviso  that  the  person  so  arrested  should  be 
promptly  taken  before  some  magistrate  in  the  county  where  the  offense 


1 5  6  WORLDS  RAIL  WA  V  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

was  committed  and  complaint  lodged  against  him  in  the  usual  manner 
required  by  law. 

The  enactment  of  these  laws  was,  I  believe,  caused  by  the  difficulty 
with  which  the  carriers  were  meeting,  along  in  the  seventies,  in  pre- 
venting the  operations  of  gamblers  on  their  trains,  the  trouble  being  of 
such  a  growing  nature  that  it  was  necessary  to  adopt  stringent  measures 
to  crush  it  out.  Consequently  these  laws  were  passed  by  the  different 
legislatures,  the  intention  being,  I  think,  not  so  much  to  protect  the 
carrier  as  to  provide  means  for  protecting  the  passenger,  as  no  such 
authority  was  conferred  on  conductors  of  freight  trains,  unless  they 
carried  passengers.  In  this  it  would  appear  that  the  laws  are  defective, 
as  it  will  be  generally  admitted  that  more  crimes  and  misdemeanors 
are  committed  on  freight  trains  in  the  way  of  theft  and  burglary  by 
thieves  and  tramps,  many  times  over,  than  on  passenger  trains.  There- 
fore it  would  seem  proper  that  the  laws  in  this  regard  should  be 
amended  so  as  to  give  the  same  power  to  conductors  of  freight  trains 
to  arrest  persons  who  commit  crimes  on  their  trains  as  is  given  the  con- 
ductors of  trains  of  the  higher  class.  And  by  reason  of  the  powers 
given  and  duties  required  of  train  men  by  these  statutes  the  operating 
officials  of  the  railways  should  give  very  full  and  careful  instructions  to 
their  subordinates  so  that  the  men  shall  have  a  clear  understanding  o 
what  their  duties  in  the  premises  are  and  just  how  far  their  authority 
extends  so  that  they  will  not,  through  misunderstanding,  exceed  the 
authority  given  them  in  the  statutes  and  thereby  give  cause  for  one  of 
the  most  dangerous  of  law  suits  against  railway  companies,  that  of 
damages  for  false  arrest.  These  instructions,  together  with  a  synopsis 
of  the  law,  should  be  embodied  in  the  printed  rules  which  are  furnished 
for  the  government  of  the  employes  by  the  operating  department  of 
railway  companies  which  I  believe  is  not  generally  done  at  present. 

Now  that  railway  companies  are  held  to  such  a  high  degree  of  care 
in  the  protection  of  passengers,  it  having  been  decided  by  the  supreme 
court  of  the  state  of  Illinois  that  a  passenger  can  recover  for  an  injury 
received  by  a  bullet  fired  by  one  of  a  mob  into  the  train  upon  which 
the  passenger  was  riding,  with  the  intent  to  injure  some  workmen  who 
were  riding  on  the  train  to  take  the  place  of  strikers,  the  person 
injured  however  not  being  one  of  the  men  going  to  work  (see  the  case 
of  Pillsbury  against  Chicago  &  Alton  Railway,  reported  in  the  123 
Illinois  reports,  page  g),  the  law  should  be  amended  so  that  no  action 
for  damages  for  false  arrest  could  be  maintained  where  the  person 
arrested  was  acquitted  of  the  offense  charged,  unless  the  arrest  had 
been  made  maliciously.  For  if  the  servants  of  the  carrier  are  by  law 
required  to  perform  the  duty  of  peace  officers  for  the  protection  of  the 
passenger  they  should  have  the  same  protection  in  enforcing  the  law 
that  a  sheriff,  constable  or  police  officer  has,  and  the  carrier  should  not 
be  required  to  take  the  risk  of  paying  damages  on  account  of  a  mis- 
take honestly  made  by  its  employ^  in  the  performance  of  such  duty. 

Second.  As  to  the  best  means  of  guarding  against  frauds  on  the 
carrier. 

In  my  opinion  the  first  thing  necessary  for  accomplishing  this  most 
desirable  result  is  the  education  of  the  people  to  the  belief  that  it  is  as 
much  a  crime  and  disgrace  to  defraud  a  railway  company  as  it  is  to 
defraud   one's  neighbor,  instead  of  the  seeming  prevalent  belief  that  a 


POLICE  POWERS  OE  TRAIN  OFEICIALS.  157 

railway  company  is  common  prey,  and  anything  obtained  from  it,  no 
matter  how  illegitimate  the  means  used,  is  something  to  be  proud  of. 
This  can  be  done  quicker  and  better  by  the  establishment  of  a  reputa- 
tion by  the  carrier  of  treating  all  its  patrons  fairly  and  showing  no 
favors  to  one  that  it  is  not  willing  to  grant  to  all,  under  the  same  cir- 
cumstances, by  doing  all  that  is  possible  to  aid  in  the  detection  and 
punishment  of  any  one  guilty  of  practicing  or  attempting  to  practice 
fraud  against  it,  no  matter  who  the  person  may  be  or  how  much  revenue 
is  derived  from  his  business,  and  by  showing  to  the  patrons  and  the 
public  that  a  fraud  committed  against  it  by  any  one  of  them  is  as  cer- 
tain of  being  punished  as  a  fraud  committed  against  an  individual,  and 
that  it  results  in  a  pecuniary  injury  to  them  all  as  well  as  in  the  necessity 
of  the  making  and  enforcing  rules  by  the  carrier  to  prevent  such  occur- 
rences in  the  future  that  are  sometimes  an  inconvenience  and  annoyance 
to  the  customers  ;  by  the  prompt  consideration  of  all  reasonable  com- 
plaints made  against  employes  and  agents,  and  their  manner  of  doing 
business,  by  the  immediate  righting  of  any  wrongs  or  mistakes  when  they 
are  found  to  exist,  and  also  by  the  prompt  payment  of  all  just  claims. 
When  this  is  done  the  carrier  will  have  the  assistance  and  support  of 
all  who  desire  to  do  business  on  legitimate  terms,  in  preventing  those 
who  do  not  wish  to  do  so  from  accomplishing  their  fraudulent  devices. 

Second.  The  next  thing  necessary  is  the  carrying  on  of  the  good  work 
commenced  by  the  traffic  associations  in  the  way  of  reducing  the  num- 
ber of  classes  under  which  property  transported  is  rated,  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  stable  and  reasonable  rates  for  the  transportation  of  persons 
and  property  that  are  open  to  all  alike.  The  upholding  of  the  inspec- 
tion and  weighing  bureaus  in  their  good  work  in  preventing  frauds  and 
thereby  protecting  and  adding  to  the  revenues  of  the  companies  is  also 
of  the  first  necessity.  Of  course  so  long  as  human  nature  is  weak 
there  will  always  be  some  whose  fertile  brains  will  conceive  and  carry 
out  schemes  to  defraud  the  carrier,  looking  only  to  the  temporary  gain 
thereby  secured  and  forgetting  that  the  old  rule,  "  honesty  is  the  best 
policy,"  is  just  as  sound  now  as  it  was  many  years  ago. 

The  third  essential  is  that  all  passengers  shall  be  required  to  pro- 
vide themselves  with  tickets  before  taking  passage  on  trains,  making 
the  matter  of  procuring  tickets  easy  and  convenient  to  the  passenger, 
as  well  as  to  his  pecuniary  interest,  so  that  he  will  feel  bound  to  com- 
ply with  such  reasonable  requirements.  The  revenue  gained  by  the 
enforcement  of  such  a  regulation  would  in  the  end,  I  think,  much  more 
than  offset  the  necessary  increase  in  operating  expenses  caused  by  its* 
adoption,  as  well  as  result  in  almost  entirely  removing  the  temptation 
to  the  employe  in  charge  of  the  train  to  enter  into  collusion  with  the 
passenger  by  which  the  carrier  is  defrauded  of  his  reasonable  compen- 
sation. If  it  is  practicable  to  issue  tickets  for  five  thousand  miles  or 
more,  good  on  all  lines  in  a  certain  strip  of  territory,  or  say,  good  on  all 
main  lines  in  one  state,  or  between  certain  terminals,  as,  for  example, 
between  Chicago  and  the  Missouri  river,  making  such  tickets  good  for 
any  representative  of  the  house  purchasing  them,  it  would,  I  think,  result 
that  all  merchants  or  corporations  who  have  traveling  representatives 
using  any  considerable  amount  of  mileage,  would  supply  them  with 
such  tickets  and  insist  upon  their  use  by  their  agents.  If  this  could  be 
done,  I  think  it  would  be  advantageous,  not  only  to  the  carrier  but  also 


158  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

to  the  merchant  and  traveling  salesman.  In  the  matter  of  printing  and 
selling  tickets,  if  some  arrangement  could  be  made  by  which  tickets 
could  be  gotten  up  in  a  more  simple  form,  and  also  collected  and 
returned  more  promptly,  there  would  be  fewer  of  them  put  in  the 
scalper's  hands  for  sale,  and  used  the  second  time. 

And  now  as  to  the  last  and,  as  it  seems  to  me,  the  most  important 
division  of  the  subject. 

Third.  The  prevention  of  injury  to  passengers  by  accident  or  mis- 
take. 

It  will  be  generally  conceded,  I  think,  that  no  accident  occurs, 
ordinarily,  which  is  not  caused  by  a  mistake,  and  therefore,  the  matter 
of  injury  to  passengers  by  accident  or  mistake  will  be  treated  together. 

According  to  the  last  report  of  the  interstate  commerce  commission 
it  appears  that  the  railways  carried  during  that  period  the  immense 
number  of  492,430,865  passengers,  of  whom  2,425  were  injured  and  286 
killed,  the  total  of  both  killed  and  injured  being  2,711  or  one  in  each 
181,642  carried  and  only  one  killed  in  each  1,727,789  carried.  The 
ratio  is  so  small  that  the  transportation  department  of  the  railway  serv- 
ice may  well  congratulate  themselves  on  the  record  thus  made  and  ask 
whether  anything  better  could  be  expected  ;  for  if  a  person  traveling  on 
a  railway  train  is  almost  if  not  quite  as  safe  as  in  his  own  bed,  perfection 
has  seemingly  been  almost  reached.  Yet  we  who  are  in  the  business 
of  adjusting  claims  for  damages  resulting  from  such  injuries  to  passen- 
gers caused  by  accident  or  mistake,  or  in  other  words  paying  for  the 
mistakes  of  the  transportation  department,  are  able  to  see  a  few  places 
where  the  service  can  be  improved  ;  and  if  the  recommendations  which 
are  almost  being  daily  made  to  the  operating  department  in  relation  to 
the  means  to  be  adopted  to  prevent  accidents  were  received  in  a  differ- 
ent spirit  and  more  attention  paid  to  them,  fewer  lives  would  be  lost 
and  a  smaller  number  of  injuries  would  be  added  to  the  already  too 
long  list,  and  consequently  there  would  be  fewer  mistakes  to  be  paid  for. 

The  first  thing  necessary  to  prevent  injury  to  passengers  is  to  have 
good  track,  bridges  and  cars  and  engines  ;  and  second,  and  just  as  neces- 
sary, if  not  more  so  (as  unfortunately  in  newly  and  sparsly  settled  terri- 
tory it  is  not  always  possible  to  have  immediately  an  opening  of  the 
line  good  track  and  equipment)  competent  and  careful  employes  and 
officers  operating  the  trains,  with  plain  and  reasonable  rules  governing 
the  same  and  rigid  enforcement  of  the  rules,  which  should  be  made 
clear  by  careful  explanation  to  every  employe  who  is  intrusted  with  the 
care  of  the  lives  and  property  of  the  passenger,  as  well  as  of  the  prop- 
erty and  reputation  of  the  company. 

Nearly  all  railroads  now  print  and  furnish  to  all  employes  copies  of 
the  rules  which  apply  to  the  department  of  the  service  in  which  they 
are  engaged.  Every  conductor  and  engineer  before  being  put  in  charge 
of  a  train  or  engine  is  examined  by  the  division  superintendent,  or  some 
one  representing  him,  on  these  rules,  and  if  a  person  cannot  pass  a  sat- 
isfactory examination  he  is  not  promoted.  But  sometimes,  owing  to 
the  press  of  other  work,  the  examination  is  not  as  thorough  as  it  should 
be,  and  incompetent  persons  are  placed  in  charge  of  trains  or  engines, 
or  men  are  promoted  before  they  fully  understand  the  rules  and  the 
necessity  of  strict  compliance  with  them.  Again  some  of  the  rules  are 
subject  to  two  different  constructions,  as  are  many  of   our  laws  (for  in- 


POLICE  POWERS  OF  TRAIN  OFFICIALS.  159 

stance  the  one  requiring  the  Sunday  closing  of  the  fair),  and  it  becomes 
important  that  all  rules  about  which  there  is  any  doubt  of  the  meaning 
should  be  immediately  referred  to  the  superintendent  for  his  construc- 
tion, so  that  no  accident  may  result  by  reason  of  the  employe  misunder- 
standing it ;  and  when  it  is  found  that  the  rule  is  wrong  it  should  be 
promptly  changed.  If  some  of  the  following  suggestions  and  rules  were 
adopted,  I  believe  there  would  be  fewer  injuries  to  passengers  by  acci- 
dent or  mistake. 

1.  That  no  person  be  employed  for  the  purpose  of  issuing  or  receiv- 
ing train  orders  or  be  placed  in  charge  of  signal  or  switch  towers  or 
elsewhere,  having  authority  to  control  the  movements  of  trains,  who  has 
not  reached  the  age  of  twenty-one  years.  As  we  all  know  it  is  very 
difficult  to  make  a  person  under  that  age  understand  the  necessity  of 
strict  compliance  with  the  rules  in  such  matters ;  moreover  in  cases  of 
emergency  they  are  more  apt  to  lose  their  presence  of  mind  than  an 
older  person,  and  make  a  mistake  which  may  result  in  loss  of  life  or 
injury  to  passengers,  as  well  as  loss  of  property. 

2.  The  adoption  of  a  rule  that  no  train  order  shall  be  sent  making  a 
meeting  point  for  trains,  unless  the  order  is  given  to  all  trains  affected 
thereby  at  least  one  station  in  advance  of  the  one  where  the  trains  are 
directed  to  meet.  It  is  better  to  do  this  and  perhaps  lay  out  one  train, 
than  it  is  to  run  the  risk  of  the  order  not  reaching  all  trains  affected  by 
it  before  they  reach  the  meeting  point  and  attempt  to  pass  on  the  same 
track,  with  the  usual  result.  Many  head-end  collisions  are  caused  by 
the  giving  of  such  orders,  and  such  accidents  nearly  always  result  in 
the  loss  of  life  or  serious  injury  to  persons,  as  well  as  great  property 
loss,  and  more  delay  to  traffic  is  occasioned  by  one  head-end  collision 
than  is  saved  in  months  by  giving  the  order  as  it  is  now  done. 

3.  That  a  rule  be  adopted  that  no  train  be  allowed  to  follow  a  pas- 
senger train,  where  the  road  is  curved  or  the  grade  heavy,  until  the  pas- 
senger train  has  had  fully  ten  minutes'  start,  unless  the  block  system  of 
signals  is  in  operation  on  that  part  of  the  line. 

4.  Refusal  to  carry  passengers  on  freight  trains  where  it  is  possible 
to  do  so,  the  danger  to  accident  on  which,  as  we  all  know,  has  very 
greatly  increased  since  the  use  of  air  brakes  on  trains  of  that  class, 
caused  by  the  sudden  taking  up  of  the  slack  of  the  train  by  the  appli- 
cation of  the  air,  frequently  throwing  passengers  out  of  their  seats  and 
generally  injuring  their  spine  or  back.  In  some  parts  of  the  country  it 
is  almost, impossible  to  refuse  to  carry  passengers  on  freight  trains, 
there  being  but  one  passenger  train  each  way  per  day,  and  frequently, 
owing  to  the  necessity  of  making  through  connections,  these  trains  being 
run  at  inconvenient  hours  to  accommodate  the  local  business  ;  hence 
the  necessity  of  carrying  passengers  on  freight  trains.  But  where  this 
is  done  the  employes  in  charge  of  such  trains  should  be  especially 
instructed  as  to  the  use  of  the  air  brake,  and  the  liability  of  injury  to 
passengers  by  its  improper  and  careless  handling  should  be  fully  ex- 
plained to  them,  so  that  accidents  may  be  avoided.  Special  pains  and 
care  should  be  taken  in  stopping  the  car  in  which  the  passengers  are 
riding  at  some  safe  or  convenient  place  for  them  to  alight. 

5.  The  building  of  sufficiently  long  platforms  at  stations  to  accom- 
modate trains  which  are  constantly  growing  in  length,  and  keeping  in 
good  repair  all   the  platforms  and  approaches  to  station  grounds,  as 


l6o  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

well  as  the  intelligent  and  proper  lighting  of  the  stations  and  platforms, 
to  which  at  present  not  enough  attention  is  paid,  will  aid  materially  in 
reducing  the  number  of  accidents  to  passengers.  At  present  it  seems 
that  the  management  of  the  roads  do  not  realize  how  necessary  this  is, 
or  how  much  it  would  add  to  the  reputation  of  the  lines  if  it  were  prop- 
erly done,  as  well  as  diminishing  the  number  of  accidents  at  stations. 

That  more  care  be  taken  in  the  inspection  of  motive  power  and 
rolling  stock,  so  that  accidents  caused  by  the  breaking  of  wheels,  axles 
and  similar  appliances  will  be  avoided.  There  would  seem  to  be  no 
reason,  in  ordinary  weather,  why  a  train  should  not  run  from  one  termi- 
nal, where  such  inspections  are  made,  to  another  without  an  accident 
being  caused  by  reason  of  the  wheels,  axles  or  other  appliances  break- 
ing. There  should  be  a  careful,  systematic  and  thorough  examination 
of  the  track,  bridges  and  culverts  by  some  competent  person  other  than 
the  official  who  is  held  directly  responsible  for  keeping  them  in  repair. 
Fences  should  be  built  between  the  main  tracks  at  stations  on  the 
double  track  and  viaducts  over  the  track  at  such  places,  so  that 
passengers  can  cross  over  and  thereby  avoid  the  risk  of  injury  while 
getting  on  the  train  by  another  one  running  through  the  station  at  the 
same  time  on  the  other  track.  Where  this  is  not  done  a  rule  should  be 
adopted  prohibiting  one  train  from  pulling  into  a  station  at  which 
another  train  is  standing  for  the  purpose  of  receiving  or  discharging 
passengers,  until  such  train  has  started  up  and  its  rear  coach  has  passed 
the  end  of  the  station  platform  nearest  the  approaching  train. 

The  adoption  of  a  rule  requiring  that  when  train  orders  are  sent  to 
the  conductors  and  engineers,  enough  copies  shall  be  made  by  the 
operator  so  that  each  employe  on  the  train  shall  be  furnished  with  one. 
If  this  were  done,  in  some  cases  where  the  engineer  and  conductor  for- 
gets or  overlooks  his  order,  the  other  employes  on  the  train  would  be 
apt  to  notice  the  mistake  and  call  attention  to  it  in  time  to  avoid  acci- 
dent. 

That  train  dispatchers  in  giving  orders  to  train  men  make  them  as  full 
as  possible  so  that  the  men  will  understand  just  what  result  it  is  intended 
to  accomplish,  as  where  a  man  is  made  to  feel  that  he  is  a  partner  in 
an  enterprise  he  will  put  forth  greater  effort  to  make  it  successful. 

That  where  the  traffic  is  heavy  enough  to  warrant  the  expense,  that 
the  automatic  block  system  be  adopted  governing  the  movements  of 
trains. 

That  at  all  railroad  crossings  where  it  is  practicable  the  roads  be 
required  to  cross  over  or  under  the  track  first  laid,  and  where  not 
practicable  that  interlocking  plants  be  located  and  used,  and  where 
neither  of  these  plans  is  feasible,  the  law  requiring  trains  to  stop  for  the 
crossings  be  strictly  enforced,  and  that  gates  be  erected  at  the  cross- 
ings and  a  competent  person  placed  in  charge  of  the  same.  It  would 
seem  that  the  different  states  should  pass  laws  prohibiting  any  more 
crossings  being  made  at  grade,  and  that  any  railroad,  in  this  age,  that 
cannot  afford  to  make  such  a  crossing  in  such  a  manner  as  will  protect 
the  employe   and  passenger  from  injury,  should  not  be  given  a  charter. 

That  no  train  be  allowed  to  receive  or  discharge  passengers  while 
standing  on  a  railroad  crossing,  and  that  a  penalty  be  provided  by  law 
to  enforce  such  a  regulation. 

That  all  stations  where  trains  stop  to  unload  passengers  be  properly 


POLICE  POWERS  OF  TRAIN  OFFICIALS.  i6i 

announced  so  that  ample  time  would  be  given  them  to  get  ready  to  get 
off  before  the  train  reaches  their  station,  and  then  that  the  train  stop  a 
reasonable  length  of  time  to  allow  them  to  do  so,  and  that  especial 
care  be  taken  with  the  old  and  infirm  and  those  unaccustomed  to  travel- 
ing so  as  to  get  them  off  the  cars  safely. 

That  a  careful  investigation  be  made  of  the  facts  in  each  case  where 
a  passenger  is  killed  or  injured,  no  matter  how  the  accident  occurs,  and 
the  employe  or  official  who  is  to  blame  be  held  to  strict  accountability 
therefor  ;  and  when  the  investigation  develops  the  fact  that  the  busi- 
ness is  being  done  in  an  improper  manner,  that  a  remedy  be  found  and 
promptly  applied. 

And  last,  and  as  it  seems  to  me  the  most  important  of  all,  that  more 
care  be  taken  in  the  employment  of  men  in  the  engine,  train  and 
switching  service.  Now  that  the  scale  of  wages  paid  in  these  branches 
of  the  service  is  so  high,  and  the  opportunities  for  promotion  are  so 
great,  the  companies  are  practically  given  the  opportunity  of  selecting 
their  employes  from  the  pick  of  the  young  men  in  the  country  ;  that 
every  man  before  being  engaged  in  this  branch  of  the  service 
should  be  required  to  stand  a  physical  examination,  especially  as  to  his 
sight  and  hearing,  and  also  be  required  to  have  a  good  common  school 
education,  and  that  before  any  one  is  employed  the  rules  and  require- 
ments of  the  service  be  fully  explained  to  him,  so  that  he  will  under- 
stand that  the  prevention  of  loss  of  life  and  property  as  well  as  his 
future  advancement  depend  upon  strict  obedience  to  the  rules  ;  that  the 
custom  now  in  vogue  on  most  railroads  of  promotion  from  the  ranks 
and  for  meritorious  service  be  continued,  so  that  all  employes  engaged 
in  the  transportation  department  will  come  to  understand  that  their 
pecuniary  interest  and  their  advancement,  as  well  as  the  permanency 
of  their  position,  depend  solely  on  the  prompt  and  intelligent  attention 
and  care  given  to  the  lives  and  property  placed  in  their  charge,  and 
the  protection  and  enhancement  of  the  revenues  of  their  employer. 

This,  together  with  the  cultivation  of  friendly  relations  between 
employes  and  officials  of  the  companies,  absolute  fairness  in  the  treat- 
ment of  employes  so  that  no  one  shall  be  discharged  except  for  cause, 
the  good  of  the  service  and  the  protection  of  the  public ;  and  the 
prompt  reinstatement  of  all  men  who  are  unjustly  discharged  from  the 
service  will,  in  my  opinion,  do  more  than  anything  else  to  "  prevent 
injuries  to  passengers  by  accidents  or  mistakes,  as  well  as  prevent 
frauds  against  the  carrier." 


1 62  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 


SAFETY  DEVICES  APPLIED  TO  RAILWAY  CARS. 


GEN.  HORACE    PORTER,  VICE-PRESIDENT    PULLMAN  S    PALACE    CAR    CO. 


Ever  since  the  introduction  ot  railways  in  this  country  speed, 
comfort  and  safety  in  travel  have  been  the  three  salient  merits  adver- 
tised by  passenger  agents.  Since  the  first  trains  were  put  on  speed  has 
quadrupled,  comfort  has  become  luxury,  and  safety,  while  it  has  not 
yet  been  able  to  avoid  ail  sources  of  danger,  has  fully  kept  pace  with 
the  progress  of  other  improvements. 

To  appreciate  properly  what  has  been  accomplished  in  the  direction 
of  safety  in  the  present  age  we  must  consider  the  dangers  to  which 
railway  travel  was  exposed  half  a  century  ago.  It  has  been  said  by 
advocates  of  mechanical  evolution  that  the  modern  steam  engine  has 
been  evolved  from  the  ancient  leather  fire  bucket.  It  might  be  said 
with  truth  that  the  modern  railway  car  has  been  evolved  from  the  old 
fashioned  stage  coach.  The  early  cars  were  divided  into  compartments 
that  bore  a  close  resemblance  inside  and  outside  to  stage  coach  bodies 
with  the  middle  seat  omitted.  America  is  one  of  the  few  countries 
which  has  departed  entirely  in  the  construction  of  its  cars  from  the 
stage  coach  architecture,  and  has  adopted  a  long  car  in  one  compart- 
ment containing  a  middle  aisle  which  admits  of  communication  through- 
out the  train. 

When  we  picture  the  surroundings  of  the  traveler  upon  railways 
during  the  early  years  of  their  existence,  we  find  that  his  trip  was  sur- 
rounded with  so  many  dangers  that  it  is  not  a  matter  of  wonder  that  it 
took  the  traveling  public  a  long  time  to  become  educated  to  making 
journeys  which  involved  so  many  perils  and  discomforts.  The  car  was 
frail  in  construction,  and  at  first  was  mounted  upon  wheels  without 
trucks,  which  constituted  a  source  of  danger  when  passing  around 
curves,  and  in  case  of  broken  wheels  and  axles  ;  and  when  trucks  were 
introduced  they  were  so  crude  in  construction  that  for  some  time  but 
meagre  advantage  was  derived  from  them.  The  strength  of  materials 
was  so  badly  proportioned  that  weak  spots  developed,  and  "  break 
downs  "  were  proverbially  common.  The  brakes  were  clumsy  and  of 
little  service  ;  the  couplings  were  dangerous  ;  there  were  no  buffers  ; 
"  telescoping  "  in  collisions  was  of  frequent  occurrence  ;  the  ends  of  the 
flat  bar  rails  were  cut  diagonally,  so  that  when  laid  down  they  would 
lap  and  form  a  smoother  joint,  and  they  often  became  "sprung,"  spikes 
would  not  hold,  and  the  end  of  the  rail  with  its  sharp  point  would  rise 
high  enough  for  the  wheel  to  run  under  it,  rip  it  loose  and  send  the 
pointed  end  through  the  car.  This  was  called  a  "  snake's  head,"  and 
the  unlucky  passenger  sitting  over  it  was,  likely  to  be  impaled  against 
the  roof.  A  stove  was  placed  in  each  end  of  the  car,  which  did  little 
more  than  threaten  passengers  with  conflagration,  and  generate  noxious 


SAFETY  DEVICES  APPLIED  TO  RAILWAY  CARS.  163 

gases  to  poison  the  air.  The  dust  was  suffocating  in  dry  weather  ;  there 
were  no  adequate  spark  arresters  on  the  engine,  or  screens  at  the  win- 
dows of  the  cars  ;  and  the  begrimed  passenger  at  the  end  of  his  journey 
looked  as  if  he  had  spent  the  day  in  a  blacksmith's  shop.  The  candles 
or  lamps  used  only  served  to  make  the  darkness  visible,  and  reading  in 
such  a  light  produced  serious  injury  to  the  eyes.  The  severe  jolting, 
the  rattling  of  the  windows,  and  the  jerking  of  the  train  produced  serious 
shocks  to  the  nerves,  and  the  threatened  accidents  had  a  depressing 
effect  upon  the  mind.  From  that  day  until  the  present  time,  the  rest- 
less ingenuity  and  unceasing  energy  of  inventors  has  been  constantly 
taxed  in  perfecting  devices  for  increasing  the  element  of  safety,  and 
every  year  has  shown  more  or  less  progress  in  overcoming  the  dangers 
of  travel. 

In  1849  the  Hodge  hand  brake  was  introduced,  and  in  185 1  the 
Stevens  brake.  These  enabled  the  cars  to  be  controlled  in  a  man- 
ner which  added  much  to  the  safety  as  well  as  to  the  economy  of  hand- 
ling trains.  These  earlier  forms  of  car  brakes  simply  provided  for  a 
hand  brake  at  each  end  of  the  car  which  was  applied  by  direct  pressure 
to  the  wheels  of  the  truck  nearest  to  it.  In  1852  the  Tanner  brake  was 
invented,  which  was  a  marked  improvement  upon  the  brakes  previously 
used.  It  consisted  of  a  series  of  rods  and  levers  pivoted  under  the  car 
and  operated  by  a  brake  wheel  from  the  platform,  by  which  operation 
all  of  the  brakes  could  be  set  upon  the  wheels  of  both  trucks  simply  by 
the  turning  of  one  brake  wheel  at  either  end  of  the  car. 

In  1869  George  Westinghouse  patented  his  air  brake,  by  which 
power  from  the  engine  was  transmitted  by  compressed  air  carried 
through  hose  and  acted  upon  the  brakes  of  every  car  in  the  train.  This 
marked  an  important  era  in  the  history  of  safety  devices.  The  air 
brake  system  permitted  the  braking  of  the  entire  train  by  the  engineer, 
and  also  by  the  pulling  of  a  cord  running  through  the  train  ;  and  acted 
automatically  in  case  of  the  breaking  apart  of  the  train  or  the  derail- 
ment of  a  car.  The  action  was  prompt  and  the  power  so  effectual  that 
the  train  could  be  stopped  in  an  incredibly  short  time,  and  the  brakes 
released  in  an  instant. 

In  1 87 1  the  vacuum  brake  was  devised,  by  means  of  which  the 
power  was  applied  to  the  brakes  by  exhausting  the  air,  instead  of  by 
applying  direct  air  pressure. 

Another  important  improvement  in  American  railway  cars  was  the 
mounting  of  the  cars  upon  trucks  of  either  four  or  six  wheels.  A  marked 
advantage  was  derived  from  this  construction,  as  car  bodies  of  great 
length  could  be  mounted  upon  these  trucks  which  had  an  independent 
movement,  being  swiveled  upon  the  bolster  of  the  car,  thus  enabling  the 
car  to  pass  easily  around  curves  of  short  radii.  They  also  imparted  to 
car  construction  a  conspicuous  element  of  safety  against  accidents 
arising  from  derailed  or  broken  wheels ;  as  in  case  of  the  breaking  of  a 
wheel,  the  truck  was  able  to  travel  upon  the  remaining  wheels,  and 
many  serious  accidents  were  thus  avoided.  The  cast  iron  wheels  for 
a  long  time  used  were  apt  to  break,  and  became  a  recognized  source  of 
danger  when  used  under  passenger  cars.  This  led  to  the  introduction 
of  wheels  of  better  construction  and  equipped  with  steel  tires.  By  this 
means  the  life  of  the  wheel  was  largely  increased  and  its  strength  and 
safety  greatly  augmented. 


1 64  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

Much  difficulty  was  experienced  for  many  years  from  the  imperfect 
methods  employed  in  coupling  cars.  The  ordinary  means  consisted  of 
coupling  pins  inserted  into  links  attached  to  the  ends  of  the  cars. 
There  was  a  great  deal  of  "slack,"  the  jerking  of  the  train  was  in  con- 
sequence very  objectionable,  and  the  distance  between  the  platforms  of 
the  cars  made  the  crossing  from  one  car  to  another  exceedingly  danger- 
ous. In  case  of  collisions,  one  platform  was  likely  to  rise  above  that  of 
the  next  car,  and  "telescoping,"  the  most  dreaded  form  of  accidents, 
was  of  frequent  occurrence.  The  means  of  warning  passengers  against 
standing  on  the  platforms  were  characteristic  of  the  danger  which 
threatened,  and  were  often  ingenious  in  the  devices  for  attracting  atten- 
tion. On  a  New  Jersey  road  there  was  printed  on  the  car  doors  a  pic- 
ture of  a  newly-made  grave  with  a  formidable  looking  tombstone,  on 
which  was  an  inscription  announcing  to  a  terrified  public  that  it  was 
"  Sacred  to  the  memory  of  a  man  who  had  stood  on  a  platform."  These 
difficulties  were  overcome  by  means  of  ingenious  devices  for  more 
securely  and  conveniently  coupling  the  cars.  The  Miller  coupler  and 
buffer  was  patented  in  1863,  and  obviated  many  of  the  discomforts  and 
dangers  arising  from  the  old  methods  of  coupling.  This  was  followed 
by  the  Janney  coupler  and  other  devices,  the  essential  principle  of  all 
being  an  automatic  arrangement  by  which  the  two  knuckles  of  the 
coupler  are  thrust  together  and  become  securely  locked  by  bringing 
the  cars  into  contact  by  the  backing  down  of  the  engine  in  the  making 
up  of  the  train.  There  is  also  a  system  of  springs  which  keep  the 
buffers  in  close  contact  and  prevent  jerking  and  jarring  when  the  train 
is  in  motion.  These  couplings  can  be  released  at  will  by  a  lever  from 
the  platform,  so  arranged  as  to  permit  of  an  uncoupling  action  when 
subjected  to  a  torsional  strain  or  movement  such  as  occurs  when  a  car 
turns  over  or  leaves  the  track.  This  action  makes  provision  for  the 
automatic  uncoupling  of  a  car  when  thrown  from  the  track  and  prevents 
it  from  dragging  with  it  other  cars  in  the  train. 

The  introduction  of  the  bell  cord  running  through  the  train  enabling 
the  conductor  or  a  passenger  to  communicate  promptly  by  means  of  it 
with  the  engineer,  and  signal  him  in  case  of  danger,  constitutes  another 
source  of  safety.  It  was  supposed  when  this  device  was  suggested  that 
the  passengers  would  tamper  with  it,  and  that  there  would  be  false  sig- 
nals given  which  would  lead  to  such  confusion  that  the  evils  would  be 
greater  than  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  it  ;  but  the  people  soon 
became  educated  to  its  use,  and  fully  appreciated  its  value,  and  it  has 
been  generally  respected  and  seldom  interfered  with  by  the  traveling 
public. 

To  avoid  the  danger  from  oil  lamps  many  experiments  were  made 
for  the  purpose  of  devising  a  compressible  gas  which  could  be  carried 
in  tanks  and  readily  supplied  to  burners  in  the  car,  and  gas  lighting 
has  now  been  very  successfully  applied.  In  addition  to  its  safety,  its 
convenience  and  cleanliness  make  it  a  very  desirable  means  of  supply- 
ing light.  With  the  invention  of  electrical  devices,  electric  lights  have 
been  introduced,  and  notwithstanding  the  mechanical  difficulties  at 
first  encountered,  they  are  now  used  with  much  success. 

The  satisfactory  heating  of  cars  was  not  successfully  accomplished 
until  a  method  was  devised  of  circulating  hot  water  through  pipes. 
This  water  was  raised  to  a  proper  temperature  by  a  heater  built  in  the 


SAFETY  DEVICES  APPLIED  TO  RAILWAY  CARS.  165 

end  of  the  car,  and  was  then  passed  through  pipes  placed  near  the  floor. 
By  this  means  suffering  from  that  bane  of  the  traveler,  cold  feet,  was 
obviated,  much  discomfort  was  avoided  and  many  a  doctor's  bill  saved. 

So  many  accidents  occurred  from  the  destruction  of  cars  by  fire,  and 
so  many  appalling  instances  arose  of  the  loss  of  human  life  resulting 
from  the  overturning  of  stoves  in  cases  of  the  derailment  of  the  train, 
and  the  burning  to  death  of  passengers  imprisoned  in  the  wrecks  of  the 
cars,  that  the  public  became  panic  stricken,  and  popular  sentiment  was 
so  aroused  that  appeals  were  made  to  the  state  legislatures  to  prohibit 
by  law  the  former  methods  of  heating.  This  has  led  to  the  heating  of 
cars  by  steam  taken  from  the  engine,  and  indirectly  therefrom  by  hot 
water  circulation.  Several  ingenious  devices  are  now  in  use  to  success- 
fully accomplish  this  purpose  in  solid  trains  with  the  locomotive 
attached,  but  the  problem  of  heating  a  detached  car  without  some  form 
of  heater  connected  with  it,  is  still  unsolved,  although  these  heaters  are 
now  so  thoroughly  encased  in  metal  and  otherwise  protected  that  danger 
of  fire  from  this  cause  is  virtually  eliminated. 

The  acceleration  in  speed  and  the  greater  severity  of  the  shocks 
received  in  rounding  curves  at  a  high  velocity  was  found  to  increase  the 
strain  upon  the  rolling  stock,  and  compelled  more  attention  to  be  given 
to  new  methods  of  framing  the  cars  and  adding  to  their  structural 
strength.  The  improved  means  of  framing  and  strengthening  cars, 
however,  did  not  make  decided  progress  until  sleeping  cars  were  intro- 
duced, and  special  expert  talent  was  employed  with  a  view  to  largely 
improving  the  safety  appliances  of  passenger  equipment,  as  well  as  the 
comfort  of  passengers.  The  first  type  of  car  known  as  the  "  Pullman 
car"  was  completed  in  1864,  and  the  introduction  in  this  car  of  what  is 
known  as  the  "  Pullman  upper  berth,"  while  not  originally  intended 
primarily  as  an  element  of  safety  in  car  construction,  proved  to  be  a 
very  valuable  device  in  that  particular.  This  upper  berth  was  hinged 
to  the  side  of  the  car,  and  folded  up  to  the  roof,  forming  a  triangular 
space  in  which  the  mattresses  and  bedding  were  stored  during  the  day 
time.  The  upper  triangular  formation  in  the  top  of  the  car  served  the 
double  purpose  of  making  each  sleeping  car  section  a  unit  in  itself,  and 
also  strengthened  and  buttressed  the  entire  car  body  along  each  of  its 
sides  where  it  was  weakest,  and  protected  it  effectually  against  being 
crushed  in  case  of  the  car  becoming  derailed  and  rolling  down  an 
embankment.  Experience  proved  this  car  to  be  very  many  times 
stronger  than  ordinary  passenger  coaches,  in  offering  resistance  to  acci- 
dents arising  from  the  causes  mentioned. 

As  the  sleeping  car  had  to  carry  greater  weight  than  other  cars  by 
reason  of  its  containing  berths,  bulkheads,  wash-stands,  improved  heat- 
ing arrangements,  etc.,  the  framing  of  the  car  had  to  be  made  stronger 
than  that  of  ordinary  passenger  coaches.  It  was  found  by  experience 
that  in  collisions  these  cars  were  much  less  likely  to  be  crushed  ;  and  as 
the  crushing  of  cars  had  been  a  fruitful  source  of  loss  of  life  in  case  of 
accident,  particular  attention  was  directed  to  strengthening  the  bodies 
of  all  cars. 

The  "Pullman  end  safety  device"  is  one  of  the  latest  inventions 
that  have  been  introduced  into  the  framing  of  passenger  coaches  for  the 
purpose  of  conferring  additional  strength.  It  is  attached  to  and  forms 
a  part  of  the  end  frame  of  a  car.     The  end  sill  is  re-enforced  by  a  broad 


1 66  WORLD'S  R4ILIVAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

horizontal  plate  of  steel,  to  which  is  rivetted  a  heavy  steel  angle  extend- 
ing across  the  whole  width  of  the  car.  A  similar  angle  is  attached  to 
the  corners  of  the  floor  frame  by  steel  knees,  and  extending  upwards  in 
the  line  of  the  corner  posts,  is  bent  over  and  across  the  top  beam  form- 
ing a  continuous  steel  frame  around  the  whole  end  of  the  car,  so  that  in 
case  of  collisions  the  colliding  engine  or  car  is  prevented  from  crushing 
into  the  end  and  splitting  the  car  open.  In  fact,  the  bending  of  the 
steel  frame  produced  by  a  collision  tends  to  draw  the  floor,  sides  and 
roof  together  rather  than  to  force  them  apart. 

One  of  the  most  serious  dangers  to  which  passengers  and  employes 
were  exposed  was  in  passing  from  one  car  to  another  while  the  train 
was  in  motion.  The  introduction  of  the  improved  couplers  and  buffers 
brought  the  platforms  closer  together,  and  did  something  towards  obvi- 
ating the  difficulty  ;  but  in  rounding  sharp  curves  at  high  rates  of  speed, 
there  were  many  cases  in  which  persons  were  thrown  from  the  train. 
There  were  instances  even  in  which  passengers  were  blown  from  the 
platforms  during  violent  wind  storms.  The  person  crossing  the  plat- 
form generally  used  one  hand  to  hold  his  hat  on  and  the  other  hand  to 
open  the  car  door,  so  that  he  rarely  grasped  the  railings  to  steady  him- 
self and  was  always  in  danger  of  being  thrown  from  the  train.  As  early 
as  1852,  devices  were  invented  which  provided  for  diaphragms  of  can- 
vas to  connect  adjoining  cars  and  form  a  partly  protected  passageway 
between  them.  These  were  first  applied  to  cars  on  the  Naugatuck  rail- 
road in  Connecticut  in  185 1,  but  they  were  used  mainly  for  purposes  of 
ventilation,  to  provide  for  taking  in  air  at  the  head  of  the  train  so  as  to 
permit  the  car  windows  to  be  kept  shut  and  thus  avoid  the  dust  that 
entered  through  them  when  they  were  open.  These  appliances  were 
very  crude  and  of  little  practical  advantage  even  for  the  limited  uses 
for  which  they  were  intended,  and  they  were  abandoned  after  a  trial  of 
about  four  years. 

At  a  later  date  when  dining,  smoking  and  library  cars  were  added 
to  the  limited  express  trains,  there  became  an  absolute  necessity  for  the 
construction  of  some  safe  passageway  between  the  cars,  as  all  passen- 
gers were  then  obliged  to  pass  from  one  part  of  the  train  to  another. 
In  the  year  1886,  George  M.  Pullman  set  to  work  to  devise  a  practical 
system  for  constructing  a  continuous  train,  and  at  the  same  time  to  pro- 
vide for  sufficient  flexibility  in  the  connecting  passageways  to  allow  for 
the  motion  consequent  upon  the  rounding  of  curves.  His  efforts  result- 
ed in  what  is  now  known  as  the  "vestibuled  train,"  and  it  is  generally 
recognized  as  the  most  important  improvement  which  has  beenmade  in 
car  construction  since  the  introduction  of  the  sleeping  car.  The  inven- 
tion was  patented  in  1887,  and  succeeded  not  only  in  supplying  the 
means  of  constructing  a  perfectly  enclosed  vestibule  of  handsome 
architectural  appearance  between  the  cars,  but  it  accomplished  what  is 
even  still  more  important,  the  introduction  of  a  safety  appliance  more 
yaluable  than  any  yet  devised  for  the  protection  of  human  life  in  case 
of  collision.  It  consists  of  frictional  buffers  or  frame  plates  practically 
the  height  of  the  car  and  projecting  normally  beyond  the  ends  of  the 
car,  and  which  are  supported  by  the  buffer  springs  below,  reinforced  by 
powerful  springs  at  the  top  of  the  car.  These  frames  are  connected 
with  the  car  at  the  sides  by  elastic  diaphragms.  When  two  cars  are 
brought  together  and  coupled,  the  faces  or  bearing  surfaces  of  the  steel 


SAFETY  APPLIANCES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  167 

frames  are  pressed  by  the  springs  against  each  other,  and  the  friction 
thereby  created  is  sufficient  to  hold  them  firmly  in  position  and  to  pre- 
vent the  oscillation  of  the  cars.  There  is  thus  furnished  a  substantial 
buffer  extending  from  the  platform  to  the  roof,  which  precludes  the  pos- 
sibility of  one  platform  "  riding"  the  other  and  producing  telescoping  in 
case  of  collision.  Authentic  records  show  that  in  about  a  dozen  instan- 
ces in  which  such  trains  have  been  in  collision  at  rates  of  speed  even  as 
high  as  fifty  miles  an  hour,  the  buffer  plates  and  springs  have  taken  up 
and  distributed  the  shock  through  their  spring  resiliency,  and  prevented 
the  crushing  or  destruction  of  any  portion  of  the  car  bodies.  In  no 
instance  has  any  passenger  been  seriously  injured,  and  the  cars  have 
escaped  with  only  trifling  damage.  In  one  of  the  worst  of  these  collis- 
ions, a  passenger  was  standing  in  the  vestibule  and  suffered  no  injury 
whatever.  These  escapes  without  loss  of  life  or  limb  to  passengers  and 
with  trifling  expense  to  the  railway  companies  have  attracted  marked 
attention.  The  friction  upon  the  frame  plates  is  sufficient  to  prevent 
the  oscillation  or  swaying  of  the  cars  from  side  to  side,  and  adds  largely 
to  the  general  steadiness  of  the  train  when  in  motion.  This  has  had  a 
decided  effect  in  preventing  nausea,  from  which  so  many  passengers 
suffer  in  trains  running  at  high  speed  over  reversed  curves.  While  the 
primary  object  of  the  vestibule  was  to  create  a  safe  and  convenient 
passageway  between  the  cars,  the  perfecting  of  the  device  has  resulted 
in  a  safety  appliance  of  inestimable  value. 

While  there  have  been  a  number  of  minor  devices  introduced  from 
time  to  time  besides  those  above  referred  to  which  have  contributed  to 
the  safety  of  cars,  the  scope  of  the  present  paper  has  admitted  only  of 
the  mention  of  the  most  important  ones- — those  which  have  brought 
about  radical  improvements. 

While  it  would  seem  that  the  safety  devices  applied  to  railway  cars 
have  removed  nearly  every  source  of  danger  against  which  human 
ingenuity  can  guard,  yet  in  this  inventive  and  progressive  age  it  is  not 
improbable  that  in  the  not  far  distant  future  we  may  witness  improve- 
ments over  the  present  methods  which  will  astonish  us  as  much  as  the 
present  methods  surprise  us  when  we  compare  them  with  those  of  the 
past. 


RAILWAY  SAFETY  APPLIANCES  IN  THE  UNITED    STATES. 


ARTHUR  W.  SOPER,  NEW  YORK. 


About  half  a  century  has  passed  since  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  rail- 
road company  was  exercising  itself  as  to  the  best  motor  for  its  train 
service  between  Calvert  street  station  and  Ellicott's  mills,  and  was 
undecided  whether  horses,  a  sail-boat  on  wheels  or  steam  was  prefer- 
able. Special  reference  is  made  to  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  railroad 
company  because  it  was  the  first  railroad  carrying  passengers  in  the 
world,  and  in  the  infancy  of  railroading  in  this  country  the  annual 
reports  of  its  company  were  the  text  books  and  its  shops  had  much 
interest  for  railroad  men.     It  was  among  the  first  to  recognize  the  merit 


1 68  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

of  appliances  tending  to  the  safety  and  comfort  of  passenger  travel  and 
the  safety  of  traffic  transportation. 

The  Loughridge  chain  brake,  worked  by  the  engineer  from  the 
locomotive,  was  there  first  introduced,  and  this  was,  it  is  believed,  the 
first  effort  in  the  interest  of  safety,  giving  the  engineer  power  over  a 
train  in  the  event  of  an  emergency,  without  being  entirely  dependent 
on  the  uncertain  manipulations  of  the  old-fashioned  hand  brake.  This 
however  had  not  the  conditions  for  safety  necessary  to  our  progress, 
and  for  many  years  this  device  was  endorsed  by  the  management  of 
railroads  to  their  own  great  loss  and  detriment  where  other  appliances 
were  unquestionably  the  superior  and  later  on  adopted.  Such  also  was 
the  history  of  the  Creamer  and  other  brakes  ;  they  failed  in  comparative 
practical  service,  and  then  the  air  brake  came.  Today  the  hand  brake 
alone  as  a  working  device  on  passenger  cars  would  be  regarded  as 
ancient  history.  The  brake  wheel  and  staff  are  still  retained  on  the 
platform  and  connected  to  the  brake  rods  for  use  in  shifting  cars  in 
yards,  and  as  a  possible  alternative  in  rare  occasions ;  but  there  is  not  a 
passenger  car  running  on  any  important  railroad  in  the  United  States 
which  is  not  provided  with  the  air  brake.  It  will  not  be  many  years 
before  the  same  thing  will  be  true  of  freight  cars. 

None  of  our  railroad  companies  would  feel  justified  in  making  sched- 
ules such  as  they  now  work  unless  they  had  mechanical  appliances, 
like  air  brakes,  to  rely  upon  as  ever  present  factors  of  safety,  and 
unless  they  knew  that  the  tracks  on  which  their  trains  ran,  at  a  speed 
varying  from  forty  to  sixty  miles  an  hour,  were  so  thoroughly  guarded 
by  the  block  system  and  by  faithful  employes  at  their  bridge  approaches 
and  junction  crossings  as  to  almost  prevent  the  possibility  of  accident. 
A  prominent  member  of  the  New  York  state  legislature  argued,  when 
the  question  of  building  a  railroad  through  the  Mohawk  valley  was 
first  under  discussion,  that  the  speed  of  canal  boats  was  swift  enough 
and  that  the  granting  of  such  railroad  charters  would  result  in  Ameri- 
cans running  trains  at  a  speed  of  eight  to  ten  miles  an  hour  which 
would  dash  the  traveling  public  into  eternity.  What  would  that  states- 
man say  now  if  he  could  be  in  the  flesh  and  realize  that  on  some  of  our 
railroads  passenger  trains  are  making  a  mile  a  minute,  even  through 
that  valley  where  it  was  believed  that  a  speed  of  eight  or  ten  miles  an 
hour  would  send  the  passenger  to  destruction? 

Only  a  few  years  since  the  writer  participated,  as  railroad  manager, 
in  general  time  table  conventions  when  the  officers  of  the  Pennsylvania 
railroad  urged  the  changing  of  time  to  reduce  it  from  thirty-six  to  thirty- 
two  hours  between  New  York  and  Chicago,  and  prominent  railroad 
managers  in  competition  argued  that  it  never  could  be  done  ;  but  the 
change  came,  and  then  another  and  another,  until  today  the  twenty-four 
hour  limit  between  the  points  above  named  has  been  reduced  to  twenty 
and  this  last  great  reduction  in  time  comes  at  the  request  of  the  New 
York  Central  &  Hudson  river  railroad,  the  railroad  that  a  few  years 
since  protested  so  strongly  against  shortening  the  time  from  thirty-six 
hours. 

The  fast  time  on  American  railroads  which  now  exists  and  the  faster 
which  is  destined  to  exist  in  the  very  near  future  would  not  have  been 
possible  except  for  the  American  idea  of  the  air  brake  and  other 
appliances,  and  unless  there  had  been  such  perfect  systems  for  securing 


SAFETY  APPLIANCES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  169 

safety  on  tracks  and  crossings  as  are  furnished  by  the  various  signal 
companies,  notably  the  Union  Switch  &  Signal  Co.,  the  Johnson  Railroad 
Signal  Co.,  the  National  Switch  &  Signal  Co.,  the  Hall  Signal  Co.,  and 
others.  The  science  and  art  of  signaling  came  to  us  from  England,  but 
they  have  had  a  great  development  in  this  country  at  the  hands  of  the 
people  named  above,  and  today  there  are  in  America  signal  engineers 
as  competent  and  as  well  versed  in  the  art  as  are  to  be  found  anywhere 
in  the  world.  Although  the  use  of  block  signals  on  the  railroads  of 
the  United  States  appears  small  compared  with  the  immense  mileage 
of  our  railroads,  yet  it  is  actually  large,  several  of  the  great  lines  having 
continuous  stretches  of  hundreds  of  miles,  and  one  having  over  600 
consecutive  miles  protected  by  block  signals,  and  the  block  system  is  in 
use  on  nearly  all  American  railroads  where  very  fast  trains  are  run  and 
where  the  traffic  is  dense. 

,  Not  merely  the  United  States  but  the  whole  world  can  afford  to 
honor  men  like  George  Westinghouse,  who  has  made  his  continuous 
automatic  air  brake  a  mechanical  and  commercial  success,  and  thereby 
enhanced  the  safety  and  comfort  of  the  traveling  public.  It  is  not  con- 
fined to  passenger  service,  but  is  equally  applicable  to  freight  train 
service,  and  the  engineer  whose  engine  is  equipped  with  driver  brakes 
as  well  as  with  the  pump  for  working  the  car  brakes  can  regulate  the 
speed  of  his  train  at  pleasure,  and  can  prevent  fatalities  among  the 
brakemen  who  are  otherwise  compelled  to  jeopardize  their  lives  in 
passing  from  car  to  car.  George  Westinghouse,  however,  could  not 
have  met  such  success  in  the  introduction  of  his  air  brake  had  not  the 
liberal  minded,  advanced  and  appreciative  men  of  the  Pennsylvania 
railroad,  Scott,  Cassatt,  Layng,  Pitcairn,  Shinn  and  others,  perceived 
the  merit  of  this  invention,  realized  its  necessity  for  the  future,  and 
aided  in  its  being  universally  adopted  by  the  railroads  of  this 
country  and  of  the  world.  The  cooperation  of  these  people  led  to  the 
introduction  of  the  air  brake  on  the  whole  Pennsylvania  system  and 
naturally  on  all  the  lines  with  which  the  Pennsylvania  system  exchanged 
business,  and  has  resulted  in  saving  of  life  and  property  that  cannot  be 
estimated.  So  the  air  brake  grew  and  prospered,  in  fact  became  so 
much  a  part  of  the  railroad  system  of  the  United  States  that  any  rail- 
road new  or  old  which  does  not  have  it  on  its  engines  and  passenger 
cars  would  be  considered  as  operating  under  dangerous  conditions.  It 
is  impossible  to  overestimate  the  value  of  air  brakes  in  railroad  opera- 
tion. Of  all  safety  appliances,  it  is  probably  the  most  important.  It 
has  reduced  the  distance  in  which  a  train  can  be  stopped  to  one-fifth  of 
the  distance  in  which  it  could  be  stopped  by  hand  brakes,  or  perhaps 
even  less  ;  that  is,  it  has  been  shown  in  actual  trials  that  a  train  of  50 
cars  running  at  40  miles  an  hour  cannot  be  stopped  on  a  dry  and  level 
track  in  less  than  3,000  feet  by  hand  brakes  fully  manned  ;  but  under 
the  same  conditions  and  on  the  same  track  the  same  train  can  be 
stopped  in  600  feet  with  the  air  brake.  Indeed  a  fast  express  train 
with  the  aid  of  the  air  brake  apparatus  in  good  condition  ought  to  be 
stopped  from  a  speed  of  40  miles  an  hour  within  its  own  length.  But 
the  most  remarkable  fact  about  the  air  brake,  the  one  which  shows  the 
genius  of  the  inventor  in  the  brightest  light,  is  the  automatic  feature. 
It  is  this  feature  which  stops  a  train  if  it  is  broken  in  two,  or  if  the 
hose  is  burst.     It  also  enables  the  train  to  be  stopped  instantly  from 


lyo  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

any  car  without  the  loss  of  time  necessary  to  communicate  with  the 
engineer.  But  what  is  of  still  greater  importance  in  the  automatic 
feature  is  that  it  makes  the  air  brake  quick-acting  by  storing  the  air 
under  each  car,  and  it  is  the  quick  action  of  the  brake  that  makes  it 
possible  to  use  it  on  any  freight  train,  and  that  will  make  it  possible  to 
run  long  and  heavy  passenger  trains  at  speeds  that  are  now  seldom 
reached. 

It  should  be  mentioned  in  this  connection,  that  General  John  B.  Gray 
was  the  first  to  argue  successfully  that  appliances  similar  to  the  air 
brake  on  passenger  cars,  should  be  placed  on  the  drivers  of  locomo- 
tives, to  hold  that  ponderous  power  in  check  and  not  allow  it  to  be 
longer  subject  to  the  control  of  a  fireman  twisting  up  the  trifling  hand 
brake  on  the  tender  that  generated  scarcely  as  much  resistance  as  the 
wind.  Thus  came  the  application  of  the  brake  to  the  drivers  of  these 
monster  locomotives  all  over  this  country,  notwithstanding  the  protest 
early  made  by  many  prominent  mechanical  men. 

But  there  are  other  appliances  which  contribute  to  the  safety  and 
comfort  of  American  travel  similarly  with  the  air  brake.  The  exer- 
tions of  the  Pullman  and  Wagner  palace  car  companies  are  among  the 
foremost.  The  air  brake  contributes  to  the  safety  and  comfort  of 
travel,  the  block  and  signal  systems  guarantee  the  safety  of  passengers, 
but  the  palace  car  companies  secure  for  the  patrons  of  their  coaches 
not  merely  safety,  but  luxury.  People  in  America  without  these  acces- 
sories, but  in  good,  comfortable,  wholesome  cars  can  travel  more 
cheaply  than  anywhere  else  in  the  civilized  world  ;  but  if  the  traveler 
patronizes  Pullman  or  Wagner  he  will  not  merely  be  transported  cheaply 
but  he  will  be  domiciled  luxuriously  and  will  enjoy  all  the  comforts  of 
a  first-class  hotel,  together  with  any  amount  of  exclusiveness  which  he 
may  require.  Travelers  moreover  are  safer  in  these  cars  than  in  any 
ordinary  passenger  coach,  for  the  reason  that  they  are  built  so  strongly 
and  so  substantially.  The  vestibule  is  another  element  of  safety  as 
well  as  of  comfort  which  has  been  recently  introduced  and  which  is  a 
purely  American  idea.  It  permits  passengers  to  pass  freely  from  one 
end  of  the  train  to  the  other,  to  dine,  to  smoke,  to  read  in  the  library 
car,  to  chat  with  their  fellow  passengers,  and  all  without  the  slightest 
danger  of  being  thrown  from  the  platforms  as  they  go  from  car  to  car. 
It  also  lessens  the  vibrations  and  oscillations  of  the  cars  in  running  and 
diminishes  the  liability  of  one  platform  to  override  the  other  in  case  of 
collision,  thus  by  these  two  actions  lessening  the  danger  of  derailment 
and  the  danger  of  telescoping. 

Accidents  have  happened  to  passenger  trains  through  fire  and  other 
causes  that  are  rapidly  being  made  less  possible  by  the  railroad  man- 
agers of  the  country,  through  extra  precautions  which  place  the  traveler 
almost  in  position  of  absolute  safety  today.  Altogether,  a  man  or 
woman  of  moderate  means  traveling  in  an  American  vestibule  train  can 
enjoy  as  many  comforts  and  luxuries  as  the  queen  of  England  when 
she  journeys  in  the  royal  train  from  London  to  Osborne  or  Balmoral, 
and  can  travel  nearly  as  safely.  The  czar  of  Russia  cannot  have  either 
the  same  comfort  or  the  same  security  for  the  want  of  American  appli- 
ances of  safety. 

Then  again  America  has  her  platform  and  coupler,  which  dis- 
penses with  the  old-fashioned  link  and  pin  and  makes  travel  safer,  in 


SAFETY  APPLIANCES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  171 

consequence  of  the  entire  train  moving  practically  as  one  body.  Ezra 
Miller,  of  Dunkirk,  was  the  first  person  who  conceived  this  idea  of  hav- 
ing a  close  connection  between  passenger  cars,  and  an  automatic 
coupling.  Some  years  later  came  Janney,  of  Pittsburgh,  not  merely 
with  an  automatic  car  coupler,  with  buffers  for  passenger  service,  which 
was  at  once  adopted  by  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  company  and  later 
on  by  many  of  its  connecting  lines,  but  with  the  same  automatic  coupler 
for  freight  car  service,  which  did  away  entirely  with  coupling  by  hand 
and  thereby  contributed  to  stopping  the  fatal  casualties  to  which  brake- 
men  were  continually  subjected  in  coupling  and  uncoupling  freight 
cars.  There  was  opposition  to  the  adoption  of  any  automatic  coupler 
which  from  its  close  action  eliminated  the  slack  that  in  former  times 
was  considered  necessary  to  starting  a  heavy  freight  train,  but  this  idea 
has  practically  become  obsolete  since  what  are  generally  known  as  the 
Burlington  tests  ;  and  when  the  Master  Car  Builders'  association  after 
careful  consideration  had  adopted  the  M.  C.  B.  type  of  coupler  as  the 
standard  of  the  association  the  many  railroad  companies  commenced  at 
once  the  use  of  this  form  of  coupler.  As  Congress  has  now  acted  in 
this  matter  and  several  states  have  required  such  uniformity  there  is 
little  doubt  that  the  making  of  this  change  will  be  greatly  accelerated 
and  at  the  outside  in  five  years  from  this  date,  or  even  less,  the  entire 
freight  car  equipment  of  the  United  States,  or  it  might  be  said  of  North 
America,  will  be  provided  with  automatic  car  couplers  of  the  master 
car  builders'  type,  each  locking  with  and  unlocking  from  the  other. 
Thus  the  railroads  will  be  happily  freed  from  a  practice  which,  on 
purely  humanitarian  grounds,  should  have  been  abolished  long  since, 
and  will  adopt  universally  a  substitute  which  not  merely  on  the  grounds 
of  humanity,  but  on  those  of  economy  and  uniformity,  should  have  been 
made  years  ago.  Had  the  change  been  made  ten  years  since  it  would 
have  saved  the  lives  of  thousands  of  men  and  the  suffering  of  their 
afflicted  families,  and  it  would  have  saved  the  railroads  great  sums 
paid  on  account  of  deaths  and  injuries.  The  great  majority  of  hospi- 
tal and  legal  expenses  for  the  killed  and  injured  is  due  to  this  want  of 
uniform  automatic  couplers. 

Minneapolis  and  the  master  car  builders  attending  that  exciting 
convention  will  ever  be  remembered  as  accomplishing  one  of  the 
greatest  works  in  the  history  of  our  railroads  in  deciding  upon  a  uni- 
form drawbar.  For  many  years  this  subject  had  been  before  them. 
There  never  was  a  session  at  which  it  was  not  discussed,  and  it  had 
finally  reduced  itself  down  to  where  there  were  six  links  and  pins  and 
six  vertical  hooks  recommended  by  this  association,  none  of  which  would 
couple  with  the  other ;  and  there  the  matter  rested  for  years,  until  this 
decisive  step  was  taken  that  threw  them  all  out  and  settled  upon  a  sin- 
gle type  requiring  that  every  drawbar  should  couple  with  the  other. 
In  the  history  of  our  railroads  no  question  has  been  solved  more  impor- 
tant than  this.  All  these  years  there  has  hardly  been  a  railroad  shop 
that  has  not  produced  its  many  inventive  geniuses  who  were  devoting 
much  time  and  money  to  their  own  particular  safety  couplers,  and  not 
alone  was  it  confined  to  railroad  employes.  So  much  interest  centered 
in  the  question  that  men  of  almost  every  occupation  enlisted  in  it  until 
there  were  more  than  3,000  such  appliances  connected  with  car  coup- 
ling in  the  patent  office  of  this  country,  many  of  them  in  operation  on 


1 7  2  WORLD'S  RAIL  WA  V  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

the  railroads  and  hardl}^  any  of  them  that  would  couple  with  one 
another.  Taking  the  many  years  past  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  more 
time  has  been  spent  by  officers  of  railroads  in  the  examination  of  the 
different  devices  and  more  thought  given  to  the  subject  than  to  any 
other,  and  it  must  be  a  relief  to  all  their  minds  to  know  that  that  ques- 
tion is  finally  settled. 

One  of  the  most  complex  subjects  in  railroad  management  for  many 
years  has  been  the  question  of  safe  heating  of  their  passenger  cars.  It 
has  been  generally  conceded  by  the  great  majority  of  railroad  man- 
agers that  the  proper  distribution  and  regulation  of  the  heat  within  a 
car  is  best  accomplished  by  means  of  circulating  water,  which  prevents 
rapid  changes  in  temperature,  and  thus  adds  to  the  comfort  of  the  pas- 
sengers. This  system  found  great  favor  with  many  of  the  railroad 
companies  and  is  exclusively  used  by  the  sleeping  car  companies  of 
this  country. 

Railroad  companies  in  this  country  delayed  recognizing  any  method 
of  steam  heating  until  hasty  legislation  came  in  some  of  the  states, 
which  at  once  brought  the  subject  before  them.  I  say  hasty  legisla- 
tion, from  the  fact  that  the  legislators  had  little  thought  of  the  many 
perplexing  difficulties  forced  upon  the  railroad  companies  by  their 
action,  which  left  them  with  insufficient  opportunity  of  experimenting 
in  one  of  the  most  important  changes  upon  our  great  system.  The 
result  was  the  adoption  of  much  expensive  equipment  which  had  to  be 
displaced  and  today,  after  four  years'  experience,  people  are  not  alto- 
gether united  as  to  the  best  method  of  heating  passenger  coaches  by 
steam. 

The  application  of  steam  to  the  Baker  heater  system  was  the  most 
practical  thing  for  the  sleeping  car  companies  to  use,  as  it  was  import- 
ant that  they  should  have  an  auxiliary  heater  for  use  in  cases  where 
passenger  locomotives  were  detached  and  they  were  from  this  or  other 
causes  without  the  supply  of  steam.  It  is  thus  that  a  great  portion  of 
all  the  sleeping  cars  of  this  country  and  many  of  the  coaches  are  heated. 
Also  many  coaches  are  heated  by  direct  steam  which  is  applied  in  many 
different  ways,  none  of  which  attain  the  satisfactory  results  that  the  dis- 
tribution of  heat  by  circulating  water  gives. 

The  candle  lamp,  with  its  very  dim  and  uncertain  light,  as  well  as 
the  oil  lamps,  fertile  sources  of  inconvenience,  discomfort  and  danger, 
are  destined  to  be  surely  removed  from  the  passenger  cars  of  this  country 
and  economy  equally  with  safety  and  comfort  will  be  guaranteed  by  the 
substitution  of  gas  or  electricity.  The  latter  involves  the  generation  of 
power  on  the  train  by  a  dynamo  or  the  storage  of  electricity  on  the 
train,  or  the  use  of  independent  batteries  in  cells,  or  application  to  the 
axle  or  wheel  with  mechanism  constantly  wearing  and  requiring  expert 
employes  to  keep  in  repair.  All  of  these  methods  are  under  certain 
conditions  practicable,  but  the  conditions  are  frequently  unreliable,  and 
often  fail  when  their  stability  is  most  needed,  and  the  expense  is  enor- 
mous. Hence  compressed  gas  is  preferred.  But  the  gas  must  be  of  a 
special  kind,  and  here  again  this  country  has  been  fortunate  in  acquir- 
ing the  right  to  use  the  invention  of  Mr.  Julius  Pintsch,  who  realized  the 
importance  of  good  light  to  the  traveling  public,  and  who  spent  years 
in  solving  the  problem  of  supplying  the  best  illuminant  and  manufact- 
uring a  very  rich  gas  which  under  compression  will  supply  a  car  with 


SUPERANNUA  TION  OF  RAIL  WA  V  EM  PL  O  YJ^S.  1 7  3 

sufficient  for  several  days  use.  He  also  invented  the  superior  regulator 
for  reduction  of  pressure  so  that  the  flow  would  correspond  with  that  of 
ordinary  gas  in  usual  family  use.  By  means  of  this  process  the  old  time 
candle  and  the  odorous,  unsatisfactory  oil  are  being  dispensed  with,  and 
the  Pintsch  light  has  popularized  itself  on  the  railroads  and  with  the 
people  so  generally  that  it  is  abundantly  evident  it  has  come  to  stay  and 
its  use  already  on  more  than  50,000  coaches  abroad  and  nearly  5,000  in 
America,  testified  unmistakably  to  the  manner  in  which  the  light  is 
appreciated  by  the  traveling  public.  More  than  200  gas  works  are  in 
operation,  and  more  than  100,000  gas  receivers  are  in  use,  together 
with  100,000  gas  regulators.  The  construction  of  the  mechanism  by 
which  the  gas  is  furnished  to  the  car  is  so  simple  that  in  case  of  any 
derailment,  collision,  etc.,  the  fixtures  are  immediately  detached,  the 
illuminant  escapes  into  the  air  and  there  is  no  possibility  of  either  com- 
bustion or  explosion.  Should  electricity  ever  become  practicable  for 
train  service  the  Pintsch  light  must  always  have  place  as  the  most  satis- 
factory auxiliary. 

We  erect  monuments  to  perpetuate  in  the  memory  of  the  people  the 
heroic  deeds  of  those  who  have  battled  bravely  for  the  protection  of  the 
nation  from  internal  and  external  foes  ;  we  pay  like  honors  to  statesmen 
and  leaders  in  science  and  art ;  and  surely  men  who  like  Pullman, 
Westinghouse,  Wagner,  Pintsch,  Miller,  Janney,  Hall,  together  with 
many  others  who  have  labored  unostentatiously  but  consistently  to  con- 
tribute to  the  safety  and  comfort  of  untold  millions  and  have  built  up 
great  industries  that  have  given  employment  to  many  thousands  of  our 
people,  deserve  equally  with  generals,  statesmen  and  professors  of 
science,  the  monuments  of  grateful  appreciation  which  a  discerning 
public  erects  periodically  for  the  world's  benefactors. 


SUPERANNUATION  OF  RAILWAY  EMPLOYES. 


L.     J.    SEARGEANT,     GENERAL     MANAGER    GRAND    TRUNK    RAILWAY   OF 

CANADA,    AND    PRESIDENT    CHICAGO    &    GRAND 

TRUNK    RAILWAY    COMPANY. 


It  is  distressing  to  a  railway  manager  whose  heart  is  in  the  right 
place  to  be  under  the  necessity  of  terminating  faithful  services  which 
are  no  longer  efficient  by  reason  of  age,  infirmity,  or  any  of  the  ills  of 
life  to  which  flesh  is  heir.  The  duty  becomes  painful  when  the  employe 
has  dependents,  no  private  means  of  support,  and  is,  therefore,  com- 
pelled to  fall  back  upon  the  cold  charity  of  relatives  or  friends.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  a  duty  to  the  company  he  represents,  to  take  care  that 
its  business  is  in  all  its  details  vigorously  and  properly  conducted. 
The  argument  may  be  used  that  engagements  naturally  hinge  upon  the 
performance  of  duty ;  that  railway  service  is,  like  others,  voluntary  and 
transferable ;  that  in  payment  of  salary  or  wage,  the  company  does  all 
that  it  engaged  to  do,  and  that  no  contract  existed   to  provide  for  such 


174  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

contingencies.  On  the  other  hand  when  the  employe  becomes  as  it 
were  part  of  the  service,  when  the  performance  of  duty  results  in  habit 
which  leads  him  to  neglect  opportunities,  when  his  sympathies  create 
an  esprit  de  corps,  and  when  the  whole  of  those  cooperating  causes 
lead  to  lifelong  work  in  the  interests  of  one  company,  there  seems  to  be 
a  moral  claim  upon  the  benevolence  of  employers  who  have  benefited 
by  faithful,  if  not  brilliant  services,  to  provide  some  scheme  of  retiring 
allowance  which  will  protect  the  individual  in  those  dark  days  against 
penury  and  want. 

These  sentiments  have  influenced  British  railway  companies  in  the 
establishment  of  Superannuation  associations  which  provide  such  retir- 
ing allowances  to  clerks  and  others  coming  within  the  rules,  and  I  am 
under  the  impression  that  most  of  the  railway  companies  of  Great 
Britain  have  adopted  that  plan. 

The  object  of  this  paper  is  to  describe  the  character  of  these  asso- 
ciations and  their  practical  results  in  the  accumulation  of  funds  to  meet 
future  contingencies. 

In  dealing  with  this  question  a  primary  consideration  is  the  period 
of  life  when  the  candidate  for  superannuation  shall  be  allowed  to  retire. 
That  principle  undertakes  to  make  provision  against  the  probabilities 
of  existence  after  that  period. 

That  nothing  is  more  uncertain  than  the  duration  of  human  life  in 
the  individual  we  are  reminded  by  daily  occurrences,  but  as  Dr.  South- 
wood  Smith  remarks,  "  Mortality  is  subject  to  a  law  the  operation  of 
which  is  as  regular  as  that  of  gravitation,"  or  as  the  Hon.Elizur  Wright 
in  his  fourth  annual  report  to  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts,  puts 
it,  "Observations  have  resulted  in  scales  of  decrement  which  would 
vary  so  little  from  each  other  and  from  the  regular  curve  that  one  must 
be  sceptical  not  to  believe  in  the  existence  of  a  carefully  graded  scale 
curve  or  line  which  nature  works  after  as  her  pattern." 

The  probabilities  of  human  life  in  America  and  Great  Britain  affect 
the  superannuation  question.  My  friend  Mr.  W.  M.  Ramsay,  manager 
of  the  Standard  Life  Assurance  company's  oflice  in  Montreal,  informs  me 
that  the  expectation  of  life  in  the  States  is  higher  than  that  in  Eng- 
land and  that  calculations  are  deduced  from  a  table  of  mortality  repres- 
enting the  actual  experience  of  the  Mutual  Life  Insurance  company. 
It  is,  he  adds,  alleged  that  the  duration  of  life  in  Canada  is  higher  than 
either  in  the  United  States  or  England,  but  he  doubts  if  that  was  ever 
proved. 

Mr.  Seargent  P.  Stearns,  representative  of  the  New  York  Equitable 
Life  Association  of  Montreal,  also  confirms  the  statement  that  the 
expectation  of  life,  according  to  the  American  table  adopted  by  the 
Insurance  department  of  the  state  of  New  York  and  generally  used  in 
the  United  States,  is  higher  than  in  England.  Vital  statistics,  however, 
appear  to  have  been  somewhat  neglected  on  this  continent. 

The  rates  charged  by  American  offices  as  a  general  rule  are  less 
than  those  charged  in  England,  but  as  pointed  out,  one  important  con- 
sideration and  reason  for  this  may  be  that  the  American  offices  obtain 
a  higher  rate  of  interest  on  investments  here,  the  English  rate  being  3 
to  3>^  per  cent,  and  the  American  5  per  cent,  or  over,  according  to  the 
conservative  management  of  the  company. 

Annexed  to  this  paper  will  be  found  a  table  "A  "  sho\ying  what  the 


SUPERANNUA  TION  OF  RAIL  WA  V  EM  PL  O  YES.  i  7  5 

probabilities  are  assumed  to  be.  This  table  is  extracted  from  "  A 
Treatise  on  the  Principles  and  Practice  of  Life  Insurance"  by  Nathan 
Willey.  It  indicates  varying  expectations  on  comparing  English  and 
American  experience, — for  example  at  the  age  of  21  the  Carlisle 
estimate  gives  an  expectation  of  40.75  years  and  the  American  of  41.53 
of  life. 

At  30,  the  Carlisle         ---.-.     34.34  years 
the  American  -         .         .         -         .  35-33      " 

At  40,  the  Carlisle         ..--..     27.61      " 
and  the  American         -         -         -         -         -  28.18      " 

but  at  the  ages  of  50,  60  and  70  the  expectations  are  longer  by  the 
Carlisle  than  the  American  experience.  It  will  be  seen  that  at  the  age 
of  60  when,  as  a  rule,  superannuation  is  f)ermissible,  the  expectations 
of  life  are  according  to  the  various  tables  13.21,  14.34,  13.53,  H-og, 
and  by  "  combined  experience"  13.77  years.  These  expectation  tables 
are  interesting,  for  the  relative  longevity  of  the  inhabitants  of  Great 
Britain  and  America  has  been  a  good  deal  canvassed.  On  that  general 
question,  however,  I  venture  to  borrow  the  following  from  an  admirable 
essay  on  "  Three  Systems  of  Life  Insurance  "  by  Mervin  Tabor,  actuary 
of  the  insurance  department  of  Illinois  and  manager  of  the  Bureau  of 
Life  Insurance  Information. 

Mr.  Walford  says — "  That  the  average  duration  of  life  in  Great 
Britain  at  the  present  time  (1867)  is  41  years  ;  in  France  40 ;  in  Sweden 
39 ;  in  other  countries  progressively  downwards  until  the  average 
throughout  the  world  is  found  to  be  only  33  years.  In  Rome  1300 
years  ago  the  average  was  much  the  same  as  in  England  now.  We 
know  however  that  the  duration  of  life  at  all  ages  has  increased  con- 
siderably during  the  past  century.  Amongst  the  nobility  and  gentry  of 
England,  the  expectation  of  life  at  the  age  of  84  is  found  to  be  four 
years,  and  amongst  the  poor  fishermen  of  Ostend  it  is  precisely  the 
same." 

An  object  which  English  railway  companies  have  had  in  view  in 
the  establishment  of  superannuation  fund  associations  has  not  only  been 
to  provide  for  members  after  their  active  employment  has  been  dis- 
pensed with,  but  to  secure  permanence  of  service,  and  the  relief  of  the 
individual  from  anxieties  attendant  upon  the  contemplation  of  the  period 
of  inability  to  provide  for  himself  and  his  family, — in  fact  it  has  been 
thought  that  superannuation  associations  would  permanently  attach  to 
the  service  better  men  and  secure  from  them  the  better  performance 
of  their  duties. 

The  British  system  has  the  direct  authority  and  approval  of  parlia- 
ment and  of  shareholders  who  entirely  and  liberally  sympathize  with 
the  effort  by  this  means  to  raise  the  standard  of  efficiency. 

The  royal  assent  was  given  to  an  act  for  establishing  the  "  Railway 
Clearing  System  Superannuation  Fund  Association  "  in  1873  which 
recited  that  it  was  expedient  that  provision  should  be  made  whereby 
the  salaried  officers  and  clerks  of  any  railway  company  then  or  there- 
after admitted  as  partners  to  the  clearing  system  and  the  salaried  offi- 
cers and  clerks  of  existing  or  future  joint  committees  for  railway  pur- 
poses having  separate  staffs  of  salaried  officers  and  clerks  might 
become  contributing  members  of  the  fund,  and  that  it  was  expedient 
that  such  railway  companies  and  joint  committees  should  be  authorized 


1 7  6  WORLD'S  RAIL  WA  Y  CO  AIMER  CE  C  CNGRESS. 

to  contribute  to  the  fund.  Under  the  organization,  managing  commit- 
tees are  appointed,  trustees,  and  arbitrator,  a  consuhing  physician,  and 
secretary.  The  payment  of  each  member  of  the  fund  per  calendar 
month  was  to  be  2}^  per  cent,  on  his  salary  for  that  month,  subject  to 
such  additions  thereto  and  exemptions  therefrom  as  the  rules  prescribe. 
The  act  makes  it  lawful  for  and  incumbent  on  the  clearing  house  com- 
mittee to  contribute  a  like  sum  of  2>^  per  cent,  for  all  their  salaried 
officers  and  clerks  and  it  was  made  lawful  for  any  railway  companies 
parties  to  the  clearing  house  system  and  also  for  any  joint  committee 
to  contribute. 

In  case  any  railway  companies,  parties  to  the  clearing  system,  and 
having  separate  superannuation  funds  established  for  the  benefit  of 
their  salaried  officers  and  clerks  respectively,  receive  into  their  service 
salaried  officers  or  clerks  contributing  members  of  the  clearing  house 
fund,  those  companies  were  authorized  to  subscribe  in  respect  of  such 
clerks.  The  railway  clearing  house  committee  may  sue  for  contribu- 
tions or  subscriptions  due,  and  clause  17  of  the  act  provides  that  the 
accumulated  fund  is  to  be  vested  in  trustees  who  are  to  keep  in  their 
names,  at  some  bank,  such  balance,  as  it  may  in  their  judgment  be  con- 
venient to  keep  for  the  purposes  of  the  fund,  and  to  invest  the  fund  and 
the  accumulated  income  thereof  at  their  discretion  in  government  stock, 
exchequer  bills,  metropolitan  consols,  Bank  of  England  stock,  securities 
of  the  Government  of  British  India,  or  debenture  stock  of  any  railway 
company  in  Great  Britain,  paying  dividends  on  its  ordinary  capital. 

The  committee  is  to  consist  of  twelve  persons,  six  appointed  by  the 
clearing  committee,  and  six  appomted  by  the  contributing  members. 
The  act  gives  provision  for  amending  and  altering  the  rules. 

An  act  to  amend  the  foregoing  received  the  royal  assent  on  the  28th 
April,  1884  ;  it  extended  the  power  of  subscription  to  the  clearing  house 
committee  to  other  railway  companies  than  those  at  first  contemplated  ; 
it  further  extended  the  choice  of  investments  and  authorized  them  in 
the  public  stocks,  or  funds,  or  government  securities  of  the  United 
Kingdom  or  India,  or  any  colony  or  dependency  of  the  United  King- 
dom, or  on  mortgage  of  freehold  or  copyhold  property  in  England  or 
Wales,  or  heritable  securities  in  Scotland,  or  in  or  upon  Bank  of  Eng- 
land stock,  or  the  guaranteed  preference  or  debenture  stock,  mortgages, 
bonds,  or  other  legal  securities  of  any  railway  company  in  the  United 
Kingdom,  or  India  or  any  colony,  or  dependency  of  the  United  King- 
dom, which  has  paid  dividends  on  its  ordinary  stock  for  the  two  years 
next  preceding  the  time  of  investment,  or  on  the  security  of  any  metro- 
politan, county,  borough  or  other  rates  authorized  to  be  levied  and 
mortgaged  by  act  of  Parliament. 

It  was  also  made  lawful  for  the  clearing  house  committee  mentioned 
in  the. clearing  act  (Ireland)  i860  to  subscribe  to  the  fund. 

The  general  rules  of  the  association  provided  for  the  admission 
of  salaried  officers  and  clerks  as  authorized  by  the  act.  Member- 
ship is  compulsory  upon  every  officer  not  over  45  years  of  age  who 
shall  be  transferred  from  the  weekly  wage  class  to  the  salaried  class. 
Every  salaried  officer,  or  clerk,  admitted  a  contributing  member,  whose 
age  at  the  date  of  his  joining  the  fund  shall  be  above  28,  has  in  addition 
to  his  ordinary  contribution  to  pay  an  extra  amount  according  to  a  fixed 
scale  varying  from  i  per  cent  of  salary  at  the  age  of  29  to  5   per  cent 


SUPERANNUA  TION  OF  RAIL  WA  V  EM  PL  O  Y^S.  1 7  7 

at  the  age  of  45.  There  is  a  provision  as  to  the  terms  on  which  one  or 
more  years  may  be  added  to  membership. 

Any  contributing  member  leaving  the  service  of  his  own  accord  from 
any  cause  other  than  ill  health  or  pecuniary  fraud,  is  to  receive  back 
(but  without  interest)  his  own  contributions  including  any  payments  he 
may  have  made  under  certain  rules,  but  not  including  extra  payments 
he  may  have  made  under  other  rules. 

Contributing  members  who  may  be  dismissed  from  the  service  from 
causes  other  than  ill  health,  or  pecuniary  fraud,  or  becoming  non-elig- 
ible by  being  transferred  to  the  weekly  wage  class  are  entitled  to  have 
like  refunds. 

Any  contributing  member  leaving  the  service  on  account  of  ill 
health  before  he  has  been  a  member  for  10  years  is  to  have  a  refund 
equal  to  his  own  contributions  and  4  per  cent  simple  interest  on  the 
sum  from  the  dates  of  payment  until  repayment,  but  his  claim  upon  the 
fund  then  ceases. 

If  any  contributing  member  be  dismissed  or  should  retire  from  ser- 
vice on  account  of  having  committed  a  pecuniary  fraud,  his  contribu- 
tions and  claim  on  the  fund  are  forfeited. 

The  decision  of  the  committee  in  all  matters  are  final. 

If  any  contributing  member  dies  in  the  service  before  being  super- 
annuated, his  representatives  are  to  receive  a  sum  equal  to  his  own 
contributions  including  extra  payments  and  4  per  cent,  interest  on  the 
sum. 

If  any  member  who  died  after  being  superannuated,  his  own  contribu- 
tions less  the  amount  he  may  have  received  by  way  of  superannuation 
allowance,  is  to  be  paid  to  his  representatives  without  interest. 

Any  contributing  member  who  has  been  a  member  for  ten  years  or 
upwards,  including  any  additional  years  added  to  his  membership 
under  the  rules  is,  on  attaining  the  age  of  60  years,  or  at  any  time 
afterwards,  permitted  to  cease  his  contributions  and  be  superannuated, 
and  is,  thereupon,  for  the  rest  of  his  life,  entitled  to  receive  from  the 
fund  a  superannuation  allowance,  or  annuity,  according  to  the  following 
scale  computed  upon  the  average  of  the  salary  which  he  has  contributed, 
provided  he  thereupon  retire  from  service. 


178 


WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 


Yearly   amount  of  su-l 

Yearly  amount  of   su- 

Years   of    contribution 

perannuation  in  per- j  Years   of     contribution 

perannuation  in  per- 

completed. 

centage    of     average;     completed. 

centage     of     average 

salary.                             | 

salary. 

10 

25 

.8 

46 

II 

26 

29 

47 

12 

27 

30 

48 

13 

28 

31 

50 

14 

29 

32 

51 

15 

30 

33 

52 

i6 

32 

34 

53 

17 

34 

35 

54 

i8 

35 

36 

55 

19 

36 

37 

56 

20 

37 

38 

58 

21 

38 

39 

60 

22 

39 

40 

61 

23 

40 

41 

62 

24 

42 

42 

63 

25 

43 

43 

64 

26 

44 

44 

65 

27 

45 

45  and 
upwards. 

67 

Any  claim  for  annuity  to  which  a  member  may  be  entitled  may  be 
•commuted  by  the  committee  by  a  single  payment,  the  amount  thereof 
to  be  determined  by  the  actuary,  and  thereupon  such  member  ceases  to 
have  any  claim  upon  the  fund. 

Any  contributing  member  who  has  been  such  ten  years  or  upwards, 
and  who  becomes  incapacitated  from  performing  his  duties  by  .reason 
of  infirmity  of  body  or  mind,  not  the  result  of  his  own  misconduct,  is 
entitled  to  be  superannuated  on  production  of  medical  certificates  sub- 
ject to  certain  conditions. 

Two  consulting  actuaries  have  been  appointed,  who  after  the  expira- 
tion of  ten  years,  and  thereafter  every  five  years,  are  to  examine  the 
state  of  the  fund  and  report  upon  its  liabilities.  Any  differences  of 
opinion  between  the  consulting  actuaries  being  referred  to  a  third. 

Substantially  the  foregoing  is  the  scheme  of  the  Railway  Clearing 
System  Superannuation  Fund  association. 

The  accounts  up  to  the  year  ending  September  30,  1892,  show  the 
total  receipts  during  nineteen  years  of  this  superannuation  fund  as  being 
;^565,83i.  (I  omit  shillings  and  pence),  of  which,  after  deducting  the 
expenses  of  management,  fees,  cash  paid  on  account  of  members  super- 
annuated, cash  paid  to  representatives  of  deceased  members  and  cash 
returned  to  members  leaving  the  service,  there  remains  a  balance  of 
;£477,6ig.  invested  mainly  in  government  and  railway  securities. 

The  total  number  of  members  who  had  joined  to  September,  1892 
was  12,611.  Of  this  number  there  had  retired  from  the  service  4,574, 
died  591,  superannuated  no,  leaving  a  remainder  of  7,336  being  the 
number  of  members  contributing  to  thje  fund  at  that  date. 

The  valuation  of  the  fund  was  made  on  the  30th  September,  1888, 
by  Messrs.  Ralph  T.  Hardy  and  Spencer  C.  Thomson,  the  actuaries 
appointed,  and  they  reported  that  the  deaths  showed  a  lower  rate  of 


SUPERANNUA  TION  OF  RAIL  WA  V  EMPLO  YAS.  I  7  9 

mortality  than  the  English  Life  Table,  which  feature  of  the  fund  is 
confirmed  by  that  of  other  similar  associations;  that  if  all  the  members 
retired  at  the  age  of  60  under  certain  conditions  the  fund  would  be 
insufficient  by  ^318,037  or  ^^202, 463  ;  that  if  all  the  members  retired  at 
at  the  age  of  sixty-five  with  certain  provisos,  the  invested  funds  were 
-en  excess  of  the  estimated  liabilities  by  ^^50,203  or  ^^59,893  respec- 
tively. 

On  the  assumption  that  retirement  would  take  place  at  the  average 
of  62  %  the  probable  position  of  the  fund  is  reported  as  showing  a 
deficiency  of  ^71,285,  and  the  actuaries  recommend  that  the  benefits 
remain  unaltered,  on  the  understanding  that  the  rate  of  interest  is  main- 
tained at  4  per  cent  but  that  all  future  admissions  be  upon  terms  that 
are  fully  adequate. 

The  London  and  North  Western  Railway  company  have  established 
two  superannuation  associations,  the  first  for  officers  and  salaried  clerks, 
and  second  the  "  Workingmen's  provident  and  pension  fund,"  sub- 
scribed to  by  the  weekly  wages  staff. 

The  exhaustive  reports  upon  the  objects  and  operations  of  these 
associations  with  which  I  have  been  favored  are  so  interesting  that  I 
append  them  to  this  paper. 

The  Superannuation  Fund  association  has  been  in  operation  for  40 
years.  It  will  be  seen  from  the  balance  sheet  that  the  total  receipts 
during  those  40  years  amounted  to  ^{^974,845,  and  that  after  paying  all 
the  claims  upon  the  fund  under  the  rules  the  balance  in  the  hands  of 
the  London  and  North  Western  railway  company  at  interest  amounted, 
on  the  31st  March  last,  to  ;^742,537. 

A  very  valuable  report  made  by  three  actuaries  on  the  Superannuation 
fund  assumes,  that  as  in  the  case  of  the  railway  clearing  house,  if 
retirement  were  universal  at  the  age  of  60  there  would  be  a  deficiency  : 
if  at  the  age  of  65  there  would  be  a  surplus,  but  it  is  assumed  that  the 
probable  financial  position  lies  midway  between  these  ages,  and  that 
pensions  will  be  taken  at  the  age  of  62^.  The  fund,  therefore,  for  all 
practical  purposes  is  considered  solvent. 

I  am  also  favored  with  the  rules  of  the  Great  Western  railway 
Salaried  Officers'  Superannuation  fund,  and  also  of  a  like  fund  estab- 
lished for  the  purpose  of  providing  a  weekly  allowance  to  servants  of 
that  company  after  a  length  of  service  or  when  permanently  disabled 
from  filling  their  usual  employment  by  accident  occurring  in  the  dis- 
charge of  duty,  or  by  bodily  or  mental  infirmity. 

The  first  named  association  provides  that  the  members  make  a 
contribution  oi  2)4  per  cent  from  their  salaries,  the  company  at  the  end 
of  each  half  year  contributing  out  of  its  revenue  a  sum  equal  in  amount 
to  that  which,  during  the  same  half  year,  has  been  contributed  by  the 
officers  and  clerks. 

The  Great  Western  Railway  act  of  1864  provided  for  the  establish- 
ment of  this  superannuation  fund,  the  benefits  and  application  of 
which  are  substantially  the  same  as  those  above  referred  to. 

Clause  6  of  the  rules  provides  that  every  member  who  shall  retire 
from  the  service  at  60  years  of  age  shall  be  entitled  by  way  of  superan- 
nuation to  an  annual  allowance  for  the  remainder  of  his  life,  for  and  in 
respect  of  every  year  of  his  membership  equal  to  one-fiftieth  of  his  max- 
imum salary  during  that  period,    provided   that  such    superannuation 


l8o  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

allowance  may  in  no  case  exceed  in  amount  two-thirds  of  the  maximum 
salary  of  any  officer  or  clerk. 

The  statement  of  accounts  to  the  31st  January,  1893,  shows  that  the 
Superannuation  Fund  association  has  received  during  the  28  years 
ended  31st  January,  1893,  ^{^492, 224,  and  that  investments  exist  repre- 
senting the  net  balance  in  hand  after  deductions  according  to  the  rules 
of  ;^440,63i.  At  the  end  of  January  last  the  number  of  members  con- 
tributing was  3,886. 

The  Servants'  Pension  fund  consists  of  the  moneys  received  by 
certain  associations  belonging  to  companies  consolidated  with 
the  Great  Western,  and  membership  contributions  of  3d.  per  week 
and  in  certain  cases  6d.  per  week,  as  well  as  payments  out  of  the 
revenue  of  the  Great  Western  equal  in  amount  to  the  sum  which  during 
the  same  half  year  had  been  realized  by  the  ordinary  contributions  of 
the  members  to  the  fund.  Any  member  who  after  30  years  member- 
ship, under  tfie  rules  has  attained  the  age  of  55  years  is  entitled  on  his 
retirement  from  the  service  of  the  company  to  a  pension  of  10  shillings 
per  week,  with  an  additional  allowance  of  one  shilling  per  week  for 
every  completed  term  of  five  years  membership  beyond  the  first  30 
years. 

Any  permanently  disabled  member  not  entitled  to  pension  under 
the  rules,  may  be  awarded  out  of  the  fund  4  shillings  a  week  in  addi- 
tion to  payment  by  the  Great  Western  Provident  society  until  he 
become  entitled  to  a  pension. 

The  rules  make  further  provision  for  variation  of  allowances,  pay- 
ments to  widows  or  children,  and  reimbursement  of  members  in  cases 
of  leaving  or  being  dismissed  from  the  service. 

The  Servants'  Pension  fund  to  the  31st  December,  1892,  shows  a 
total  receipt  of  /i  18,328  and  a  net  balance  of  ^108,071. 

The  Great  Northern  Superannuation  association  covers  three  classes^ 
the  principal  officers  and  clerks,  station  masters,  inspectors,  firemen 
and  engine  drivers  and  servants  of  any  other  grade  which  may  from 
time  to  time  be  admitted  by  the  managing  committee. 

The  rules  provide  for  a  scale  of  superannuation  allowances  for  joint 
contribution  substantially  as  in  the  above  mentioned  cases  and  the  retir- 
ing age  is  put  at  60.  The  total  receipts  from  the  ist  January,  1875,  to- 
the  31st  December,  1892  (18  years)  were  ^338,318  and  the  balance 
sheet  after  making  provisions  for  payments  under  the  rules  shows  its 
present  investments  as  amounting  to  ^280,812.  Sir  Henry  Oakley 
tells  me  that  the  whole  of  the  money  is  invested  with  the  company  and 
returns  4  per  cent. 

The  London,  Brighton  and  South  Coast  Superannuation  fund  pro- 
vides that  all  principal  officers,  their  assistants,  clerks,  station  masters, 
booking  clerks,  ticket  collectors,  guards,  policemen,  signalmen,  points- 
men, permanent  way  superintendents,  inspectors,  and  timekeepers, 
locomotive  and  carriage  foremen  and  engine  drivers,  whose  ages  shall 
not  exceed  40  years  at  the  time  of  admission,  shall  upon  their  admis- 
sion to  the  service  and  so  long  as  they  continue  therein  be  contributing 
members,  and  all  other  officials  prom.oted  to  either  of  those  ranks.  The 
contributions  to  the  fund  are  joint,  the  members  contributing  2  j^  pei  cent 
of  their  salaries  and  the  company  2^.  The  secretary  and  general  mana- 
ger of  this  company  informs  me  that  their  corporation  contemplate  some 


SUPERANNUA  TION  OF  RAIL  WA  V  EM  PL  0  YES.  1 8 1 

modifications  in  the  interest  of  members  such  as  increasing  the  maxi- 
mum pension  to  two-thirds  instead  of  one-half  the  average  salaries  and 
the  refunding  to  representatives  of  deceased  members  the  difference 
between  amounts  paid  in  pensions  and  the  amounts  annually  subscribed 
by  them. 

The  Great  Eastern  company  have  three  superannuation  or  pension 
funds,  one  applicable  to  salaried  officers  contributing  2  J^  percent  of 
salaries,  the  company  supplementing  the  fund  to  a  like  extent, — the 
second  pension  fund  association  is  for  the  exclusive  benefit  of  the  ser- 
vants of  the  company  above  18  years  of  age  whose  wages  exceed  12 
shillings  a  week,  and  who  are  not  entitled  to  the  benefits  of  the  super- 
annuation fund.  The  contributions  of  the  men  according  to  the  clas^ 
to  which  they  belong  are  from  5d  to  2d  per  week,  the  company  contri- 
buting like  amounts.  Additional  contributions  are  allowed  for  back 
payments.  Retirement  on  pension  is  permissible  at  the  age  of  65 
years  to  members  who  shall  have  made  payments  to  the  fund  during 
membership  equivalent  to  contributions  applicable  to  their  class  for  30 
years. 

The  third  scheme  of  retirement  is  called  the  Supplemental  Old  Age 
relief  fund.  It  was  established  by  the  directors  of  the  company  for 
the  benefit  of  their  servants  on  the  w^ages  staff  between  the  ages  of  55 
and  65.  The  member  has  the  option  of  making  a  payment  of  £\oo 
thus  securing  the  maximum  pension  of  los  a  week,  either  in  a  lump  or 
by  weekly  installments.  Compound  interest  at  the  rate  of  4  per  cent 
is  allowed  and  every  payment  (including  interest)  of  ;^io  will  secure  a 
pension  of  i  shilling  a  week  to  the  member  on  retirement  at,  or  after,  65 
years  of  age.  There  are  rules  in  favor  of  the  member  in  case  of 
death. 

The  Manchester,  Sheffield  and  Lincolnshire  railway  company,  as 
well  as  the  South  Eastern  railway,  are  parties  to  the  clearing-house  sys- 
tem of  superannuation. 

The  North  Eastern  railway  company  have  a  superannuation  fund 
scheme  applicable  to  all  its  salaried  officers  and  servants,  but  no  estab- 
lished fund  of  the  kind  applicable  to  the  wages  staff,  although  Mr. 
Gibb,  the  general  manager  of  the  line,  informs  me  that  such  a  scheme 
is  under  consideration  at  the  present  time. 

An  interesting  fact  in  connection  with  the  North  Eastern  superannu- 
ation fund  is  that  it  has  been  found  that  the  average  age  at  the  date  of 
coming  on  the  fund  of  those  who  have  been  pensioned  was  67  >(  years. 

The  Caledonian  Railway  company  also  have  an  association  on  the 
same  basis  as  the  foregoing.  It  has  been  in  existence  for  20  years. 
The  present  membership  is  1405.  There  have  died  during  that  period 
195,  there  have  left  the  service  1432  and  there  have  been  superannu- 
ated 50.  The  funds  of  the  association  are  vested  with  the  company 
and  receive  the  same  interest  as  is  paid  from  time  to  time  on  their 
debenture  debt.  Originally  the  pension  age  was  60,  but  on  the  sugges- 
tion of  their  attorney  it  has  been  raised  to  65  for  all  members  joining  on 
and  after  the  ist  July,  1888. 

The  London  &  South  Western  scheme  contemplates  membership 
on  the  part  of  every  salaried  officer  who,  on  the  ist  May,  1864,  was  not 
less  than  20  years  of  age  and  under  50.  The  contribution  is  the  same 
as  the  foregoing,  2^    per   cent    upon  salaries  by  the  member  and  2^ 


1 82  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  COiYGRESS. 

per  cent  by  the  company.  The  retiring  age  is  60.  The  allowances 
made  on  retirement  are  subject  to  tables  of  annuities  attached  to  the 
charter  of  the  association. 

The  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire  superannuation  fund  was  established 
in  1873  ^^^  is  substantially  on  the  same  basis  as  the  above  mentioned. 
The  total  receipts  of  the  association  from  July  i,  1873,  to  June  30,  1892, 
amounted  to  ^136,754,  and  the  balance  sheet  shows  an  amount  in  the 
hands  of  the  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire  Railway  company,  after  deduc- 
tion according  to  the  rules  of  ^113,258. 

The  North  British  railway  association  fixes  the  age  of  40  as  that 
up  to  which  members  are  eligible  and  contains  a  provision  that  officers 
upwards  of  40  at  the  time  of  entering  the  service  may  be  admitted  at 
the  option  of  the  committee  by  special  arrangement.  The  company 
contributes  also  in  this  case  an  equal  amount  to  that  paid  by  the  mem- 
bers. The  total  amount  contributed  from  ist  October,  1883,  to  the  ist 
December,  1892,  appears  to  have  been  ^83,768,  and  the  net  amount  at 
that  date  ^65,771. 

The  Great  Southern  and  Western  railway  company  have  three 
funds  connected  with  that  company,  the  first  the  superannuation  fund 
for  officers,  the  second  superannuation  fund  for  enginemen  and  firemen, 
and  the  third  a  sick  fund  for  men. 

The  Superannuation  Fund  association  shows  a  total  receipt  during- 
13  years  of  £34,216,  and  a  net  balance  of  £29,580. 

In  the  case  of  the  locomotive  fund  each  member  subscribes  2  shil- 
lings per  week  and  there  are  at  present  253  members.  On  the  31st  of 
December  the  fund  amounted  with  interest  to  £32,367,  and  with  repay- 
ments and  allowances  under  the  rules  a  balance  remained  of  £20,838, 
more  than  sufficient  to  pay  off  all  liabilities. 

It  remains  only  to  deal  with  the  superannuation  scheme  which  has 
been  established  in  connection  with  the  Grand  Trunk  railway  company 
of  Canada.  This  association  was  formed  in  1874  and  was  based  upon 
the  English  practice.  The  members  were  to  consist  of  salaried  officers, 
clerks,  passenger  and  freight  agents,  telegraph  operators,  road  masters, 
inspectors  in  any  department  and  foremen  in  the  mechanical  depart- 
ment. The  applicant  was  eligible  if  not  over  the  age  of  37  years. 
Payments  2J^  per  cent  by  the  member,  2^  per  cent  by  the  company. 
The  age  of  retirement  is  55  years  and  the  member  is  entitled  in  the 
way  of  superannuation  to  an  annual  allowance  for  the  remainder  of  his 
life  equal  to  one  sixtieth  of  his  then  salary  for  and  in  respect  of  every 
year  during  which  he  shall  have  been  a  member  of  the  fund,  but  such 
superannuation  allowance  may  in  no  case  exceed  in  amount  two-thirds  of 
the  average  annual  salary  of  such  officer,  clerk  or  other  employe  for  and  in 
respect  of  the  years  during  which  he  shall  have  contributed  to  the  fund. 
The  usual  provision  exists  as  to  return  of  contributions  under  certain, 
circumstances.  The  investment  of  securities  is  limited  in  the  discretion 
of  the  committee  of  management  to  Dominion  government  securities, 
provincial  or  municipal  bonds  or  stock,  Grand  Trunk  mortgage  bonds, 
or  debenture  stock,  Chicago  &  Grand  Trunk  mortgage  bonds,  mort- 
gages on  real  estate  in  the  Dominion  of  Canada.  The  total  amount 
received  to  the  31st  December,  1892,  was  $389,682. 14 =£80,071.  After 
payments  of  refunds  and  other  outgoings  the  net  amount  in  hand  or 
invested  on  the  31st  December  was  $357,7i9.49=£73.504-     The  prac- 


SUPERANNUA  TION  OF  RAIL  WA  V  EM  PL  O  YES.  1 8  3 

tical  working  and  solvency  of  the  fund  has  been  the  subject  of  investi- 
gation during  two  quinquennial  periods  by  the  actuaries  Messrs.  Ralph 
P.  Hardy  and  Frederick  Hendriks  of  London,  England.  A  statement 
made  to  the  members  by  the  then  secretary  of  the  association,  copy 
annexed,  embodies  the  views  of  those  gentlemen  who  stated  their  prac- 
tical conclusion  to  be  that  for  all  reasonable  purposes  it  may  fairly  be 
taken  that  the  fund  was  solvent  in  1886.  The  rate  received  on  invest- 
ments was  then  5^  per  cent.  The  entire  amount  invested  yielded 
5.47  per  cent  per  annum.  A  report  to  the  same  effect  was  made  by 
those  gentlemen  in  their  valuation  for  the  previous  quinquennial  period 
ending  31st  December,  1881.  A  third  quinquennial  valuation  by  the 
actuaries  is  now  being  made. 

From  the  foregoing  it  will  be  seen  that  the  English  railway  com- 
panies have  for  many  years  recognized  the  principle  of  superannuation 
payments  to  their  salaried  officers  and  clerks ;  that  some  companies 
have  extended  the  same  principle  to  the  lower  grades  of  the  service, — 
that  is,  the  men  who  are  paid  by  wages  as  contra-distinguished  from 
salaries ;  that  these  funds  have  in  the  aggregate  on  the  expiration  of 
years  amounted  to  very  large  sums  ;  that  they  are  derived  as  a  rule  from 
the  deduction  of  2^  per  cent  from  the  salaries  of  officers,  supplemented 
by  like  payments  on  the  part  of  the  company  ;  that  the  age  for  optional 
retirement  is  generally  60  ;  that  the  rate  of  interest  in  England  on 
investments  is  lower  than  on  the  American  continent  ;  that  it  may  be 
inferred  from  the  almost  universal  adoption  of  the  principle  that  its 
advantageous  results  have  been  realized  by  experience ;  that  members 
appreciate  its  benefits ;  (I  see  upon  that  point  that  Mr.  Newdegate  has 
recently  presented  to  Parliament  a  petition  signed  by  220  employes  of 
the  London  &  North  Western  railway  out  of  235  at  the  company's 
works  in  Nuneaton  praying  for  permission  to  contract  themselves  out 
of  the  Employers'  liability  bill.  Their  reason  for  so  doing  is  that  the 
company  subscribes  handsomely  to  an  accident  insurance  fund,  and  it 
is  feared  if  the  men  came  under  the  new  act  the  fund  would  be  a  heavy 
loser  by  the  company  withdrawing  its  support)  that  the  superannuation 
principle  has  the  effect  of  bringing  about  more  satisfactory  relations 
between  employers  and  employed ;  that  it  leads  to  permanance  of  serv- 
ice ;  that  the  tendency  of  the  employed  is  not  to  retire  from  active  occu- 
pation until  compelled  or  induced  from  circumstances  to  adopt  that 
course,  as  indicated  in  the  case  of  the  North  Eastern  association  on 
which  the  actual  retirement  took  place  at  the  average  age  of  67  X  years, 
and  other  experience. 

I  am  greatly  indebted  and  have  to  thank  the  following  gentlemen 
for  information  contained  in  this  paper  affecting  their  respective  com- 
panies, viz  : 

Sir  Henry  Oakley,  general  manager  Great  Northern  railway. 
Sir  Myles  Fenton,  general  manager  South  Eastern  railway. 
Mr.  Hy.  Lambert,  general  manager  Great  Western  railway. 
Mr.  F.  B.  Ormsby,  general  manager  Gt.  South'n  &  West'n  (Ireland)  ry. 
Mr.  Joseph  Tatlow,  general  manager  Mid.  Gt.  West'n  of  Ireland  ry. 
Mr.  Wm.  Birt,  general  manager  Great  Eastern  railway. 
Mr.  Wm.  Pollitt,  general  manager  Man,  Shef.  &  Lin.  railway. 
Mr.  Geo.  S.  Gibb,  general  manager  North  Eastern  railway. 
Mr.  James  Thompson,  general  manager  Caledonian  railway. 


i84 


WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 


INlr.  J.  H.  Stafford,  general  manager  Lan.  &  Yorkshire  railway. 

Mr.  J.  Conacher,  general  manager  North  British  railway. 

Mr.  Geo.  P.  Neele,  superintendent  Lon.  &  North  Western  railway. 

Mr.  A.  Sarle,  secretary  &  gen'l  manager  Lon.  Brigh.  &  South  Coast  ry. 

Mr.  C.  M.  Scotter,  general  manager  Lon.  &  South  Western  railway. 

Mr.  W.  Barnard,  sec'y  Ry.  Clearing  system  and  Superannuation  fund  assn. 


SUPPLEMENTAL    TABLES. 

A. 
EXPECTATION    OF    LIFE    BY    DIFFERENT    TABLES. 


Age. 


3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 

lO 

II 

12 

13 
14 
IS 
i6 
17 
i8 

19 
2o 

21 
22 

23 
24 

25 
26 
27 
28 
29 
30 
31 
32 

33 
34 

36 

37 
38 

39 
40 
41 
42 
43 
44 
45 
46. 
47 
48. 
49 
50. 
SI- 

52' 


North 
ampton 


32-74 
37-79 
39-55 
40.58 
40.84 
41.07 
41.03 
40.79 
40-39 
39-78 
39-14 
38-49 
37-83 
37-17 
36-51 
35-85 
35-20 
34-58 
33-99 
33-43 
32.90 
32 -39 
31-87 
31-36 
30-85 

30-33 
29.82 
29.30 
28.79 
28.27 

27-75 
27.24 
26.72 
26.20 
25.68 
25.16 
24.64 
24.12 
23.60 
23.07 
22.56 
22.04 
21.54 
21.03 
20.52 
20. 02 
19-51 
19.00 
18.49 
17.99 
17-50 
17.02 


Car- 
lisle. 


44-67 
47-55 
49.81 
50.76 
51-24 
51-16 

50.79 
50.24 

49-57 
48.82 
48.04 
47-27 
46.50 

45-74 
44-99 
44-27 
43-57 
42.87 
42.16 
41.46 
40.75 
40.03 

39-31 
38.58 
37-86 

37.13 
36.40 
35-68 
34-99 
34-34 
33-68 
33 -°2 
32.36 
31-68 
31.00 
30.32 
29.63 
28.65 
28.27 
27.61 

26.97 
26.34 

25-71 
25.09 

24 -45 
23.81 

23-17 
22.50 
21.81 
21. II 
20.39 
19.68 


Farr 
No.  3 
Males. 


46-65 
48.83 
49.61 
49.81 
49.71 

49-39 
48.92 

48.37 
47.74 
47.05 
46.31 
45-54 
44.76 
43-97 
43.18 
42.40 
41.64 
40.90 
40.17 
39-48 
38.80 
38-13 
37-46 
36.79 
36.12 
35-44 
34-77 
34.10 

33-43 
32.76 
32.09 
31.42 
30.74 
30.07 
29.40 
28.73 
28.06 
27-39 
26.72 
26.06 
25-39 
24-73 
24.07 
23.41 
22.76 
22.11 
21.46 
20.82 
20.17 
19-54 
18.90 
18.28 


Com- 
bined 
Exper- 
ience. 


Am- 
erican 
Exper- 
ience. 


48-36 
47-68 
47-01 
46-33 
45-64 
44-96 
44.27 
43-58 
42.88 
42.19 
41.49 
40.79 
40.09 
39-39 
38.68 
37-98 
37-27 
36.56 
35-86 
35-15 
34-43 
33-72 
33-01 
32-30 
31-58 
30.87 
30-15 
29.44 
28.72 
28.00 
27.28 
26.56 
25.84 
25.12 
24.40 
23.69 
22.97 
22.27 
21.56 
20.87 
20.18 
19.50 
18.82 


48.72 
48.08 
47-44 
46.82 
46.16 
45-50 
44-85 
44.19 
43-53 
42.87 
42.20 

41.53 
40.85 
40.17 
39-49 
38.81 
38.11 
37.43 
36.73 
36.03 

35.33 
34.62 
33-92 
33.21 
32-50 
31-78 
31-07 
30.35 
29.62 
28.90 
28.18 
27-45 
26.72 

25-99 
25.27 
24-54 
23.80 
23.08 
22.36 
21.63 
20.91 
20.20 
19.49 


Age. 


53- 
54- 
55- 
56. 
57- 
58. 
59. 
60. 
61. 
62. 

64. 
65. 
66. 
67. 
68. 
69. 
70. 
71. 
72. 
73. 
74- 
75- 
76. 
77- 
78- 
79- 
80. 
81. 
82. 
83- 
84. 
85- 
86. 
87. 
88. 
89. 
90. 
91. 
92. 
93- 
94- 
95- 
96. 

98. 
99. 
100. 

lOI. 
I02. 
103. 
104. 


North 
ampton 


16.54 
16.06 
15-58 
15.10 
14.63 
14-15 
13-68 
13.21 
12.74 
12.28 
II. 81 
11-35 
10.88 
10.42 
9-95 
9-50 
9-05 
8.60 
8.17 
7-74 
7-32 
6.92 
6.54 
6.18 
5-83 
5-48 
5-II 
4-75 
4.41 
4.09 
3.80 
3-58 
3-37 
3-18 
3.01 
2.86 
2.66 
2.41 
2.08 
1.75 
1.37 
1.05 
-75 
•50 


Car- 
lisle. 


18.97 
18.28 
17.58 
16.89 
16.21 

15.55 
14.92 
14.34 
13.82 

13.31 
12.81 
12.30 
11.79 
11.27 

10.75 
10.23 
9.70 

9-15 
8.65 
8.16 
7.72 

7-33 
7.00 

6-99 

6.40 

6.11 

80 

51 


3-90 

3.60 
3.47 
3.28 
3.26 
3-37 
3-48 
3-53 
3-53 
3-46 
3.28 
307 
2.77 
2.28 
1.79 
1.30 
-83 
-50 


Farr 
No.  3 
Males, 


Com- 
bined 
Exper 
ience. 


17.67 
17.06 
16.45 
15-86 
15.26 
14-68 
14.10 

13-53 
12.96 
12.41 
11.87 
11-34 
10.82 
10.32 
9.83 
9.36 
8.90 
8.45 
8.03 
7.62 
7.22 
6.85 
6.49 
6.15 
5-82 
5-51 
5.21 
4-93 
4.66 
4.41 
4.17 
3-95 
3-73 
3-53 
3-34 
3.16 
3.00 
2.04 
2.69 
2.55 
2.41 
2.29 
2.17 
2.06 
1-95 
1.85 
1.76 
1.68 


i8.i6- 
17-50 
16.86 
16.22 
15.59 
14.97 
14.37 
13.77 
13.18 
12.61 
12.05 
11.51 
10.97 
10.46 
9.96 

9-47 
9.00 
8.54 
8.10 
7.67 
7.26 
6.86 
6.48 
6.11 
5.76 
5.42 
5.09 
4.78 
4.48 
4.18 
3.90 
3-63 
3-36 
3-10 
2.84 
2-59 
2-35 

2. 11 
1.89 
1.67 
1.47 
1.28 

1. 12 
-99 
.89 
•75 
.50 


Am- 
erican 
Exper- 
ience. 


ia.79 
18.09 
17.40 
16.72 
16.05 
15.39 
14.74 
14.09 

13.47 
12.86 
12.26 
11.68 
11.10 
10.54 
10.00 
9.48 
8.98 
8.48 
8.00 
7-54 
7.10 
6.68 
6.28 
5.88 
5.48 
5.10 
4.74 
4-38 
4.04 
3.71 
3-39 
3.08 
2.77 
2.47 
2.19 
1.91 
1.66 
1.42 
1.19 
.98 
.80 
.64 
.50 


SUPEKANNUA  TION  OF  RAIL  IVA  V  EM  PL  O  YES.  1 8  5 

B. 
LONDON  &  NORTHWESTERN  RAILWAY  PROVIDENT  AND  PENSION  SOCIETY. 

A  Pension  Fund  for  the  benefit  of  the  weekly  wages  staff  of  the  London  &  Northwestern 
railway  company,  in  all  departments  exclusive  of  the  locomotive  (for  which  a  separate  fund, 
since  dissolved,  was  formed),  was  established  on  the  ist  of  May,  1883,  the  main  feaiures  of  which 
were  as  follows  : 

Staff  Eligible — All  men  then  in  the  service  who  were  over  18  and  under  55  years  of  age  and 
in  receipt  of  not  less  than  12s.  per  week  were  admitted  to  the  fund  provided  they  elected  to  join 
within  a  period  of  six  months  from  its  formation,  and  the  company's  regulations  required  that  in 
future  those  not  already  members  should,  if  eligible,  join  upon  receiving  an  advance  of  wages, 
and  that  all  new  men  should  become  members  on  their  appointment. 

Terms  of  Membership — Men  under  40  years  of  age  were  admitted  without  any  back  pay- 
ment, those  over  40  being  required  to  pay  the  premiums  back  to  their  40th  birthday,  by  double 
weekly  payments  (including  current  premium)  if  under  50,  and  by  treble  weekly  payments  if 
ovei that  age 

Rate  of  Metnbers'  Cotitributions — First-class  members,  2d.  per  week.  Second-class  mem- 
bers, id.  per  week.  Persons  joining  the  fund  as  second-class  members  could  only  subsequently 
become  first-class  members  on  receiving  an  advance  of  wages  from  a  sum  below  25s.  per  week  to 
25s.  or  upwards,  premiums  being  paid  back  to  the  age  of  40  if  over  that  age  at  the  time  of 
transfer. 

Company's  Contribution — One  penny  per  week  per  member,  irrespective  of  class,  com- 
mencing, however,  with  a  minimum  of  ;^3,c)oo  per  annum,  and  being  restricted  at  present  to  a 
maximum  of  ;^6,ooo  per  annum.  The  London  &  Northwestern  company  acts  as  the  society's 
bankers,  and  allow  4  per  cent    interest  on  the  funds  as  they  accrue. 

Weekly  Pensions,  etc. — First-class,  10s.  a  week  ;  second-class,  7s.  a  week.  A  reyirn  of  half- 
premiums  is  also  made  to  members  leaving  the  service  from  other  causes  than  misconduct  or 
voluntary  resignation. 

Conditions  under  ivhich  Pensioft  is  Payable — The  pension  is  payable  to  members 
incapacitated  for  continuing  their  employment  after  the  age  of  60  ;  at  65  it  can  be  claimed  irre- 
spective of  the  health  of  the  member  or  his  fitness  for  work. 

Gejicral  Remarks — The  number  of  members  at  the  end  of  8  months  from  the  date  of  the 
establishment  of  the  fund  (including  the  period  of  6  months  during  which  admission  could  be 
voluntarily  obtained)  was  16,609. 

No  claims  for  pensions  could  arise  until  after  the  ist  of  May,  1888,  when  the  fund  had  been 
in  operation  for  five  years,  and  men  who  were  approaching  the  maximum  age  of  55  when  admitted 
on  the  ist  of  May,  1883,  began  to  attain  60.  At  the  end  of  this  year  (1888)  the  number  of  mem- 
bers had  grown  to  21,190,  and  the  financial  condition  of  the  fund  was  as  follows  : 

Accumulated  members'  contributions £'2^,7'23    o  9 

"  company's  "  25,528  13  i 

"  interest 6,153119 

Total ;^6i,405     5  7 

which,  after  deducting  working  expenses,  left  a  balance  to  the  credit  of  the  fund  on  31st  Decem- 
ber, 1888,  of  ;£59,o7i  4  ID,  with  an  annual  income  of  about  ;^i3,ooo. 

As  far  back  as  the  ist  January,  1874,  a  provident  society  had  been  established  for  the  same 
class  of  men,  and,  as  the  members  of  that  society  and  of  the  pension  fund  had,  in  the  year  1888, 
become  to  a  great  extent  identical,  it  was  considered  that  an  advantage  would  accrue  to  both  by  an 
amalgamation  of  the  two  funds,  and  this  was  accordingly  carried  out,  as  from  the  ist  January, 
1889,  from  which  date  the  amalgamated  societies  became  known  as  the  "  Provident  and  Pension 
Society." 

The  balance  of  the  two  funds  at  the  time  of  the  amalgamation  were  : 

Provident  society     ;^40,o58     8     6 

Pension  fund 59.071     4  10 

Total    ;£99,i29  13     4 

and  of  the  numbers  : 

Provident  society    23,515 

Pension  fund 21,190 

The  amalgamation  of  the  two  societies  rendered  necessary  some  slight  modification  of  the 
original  rules  of  the  pension  fund,  and  for  6  months  after  the  amalgamation  those  men  who  had 
not  previously  joined  the  fund  were  allowed  a  further  opportunity  of  becoming  members  on 
similar  conditions  to  those  in  operation  during  the  first  6  months  after  the  pension  fund  was 
established,  provided  their  age  did  not  exceed  50,  after  that  date  the  maximum  age  for  admission 
was  reduced  to  45. 

Provision  was  also  made  that  members  who,  under  the  rules  of  the  Provident  society,  were 
entitled,  on  becoming  incapacitated  for  work,  to  a  retiring  gratuity  of  ;^i2  los.  for  each  completed 
period  of  five  years  membership  up  to  a  maximum  of  ;^5o,  should  have  the  option  of  giving  up 
such  retiring  gratuity  and  receiving  an  additional  pension  of  6d.  per  week  for  each  amount  of 
;^i2  IDS.  so  relinquished. 

A  further  alteration  has  recently  been  made  in  the  rules  providing  for  the  payment  of  half 
Pettsion  to  members  breaking  down  at  any  time  after  20  years'  service,  the  member  being  allowed, 
if  necessary,  to  complete  20  years'  membership  by  paying,  in  one  sum,  the  amount  of  premiums 
required. 

Since  May,  1888,  the  society  has  pensioned  137  members  who  have  broken  down  between  the 


1 86  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

ages  of  60  and  65,  ig  of  these  have  died,  and  the  number  now  in  receipt  of  pension  is  118.  There 
are  also  5  members  receiving  half  pension. 

No  claim  for  the  pension  has  yet  been  made  by  a  member  on  attaining  the  age  of  65,  and  few- 
claims  of  this  sort  are  expected  for  some  time,  as  it  is  only  such  members  who  were  closely 
approaching  the  age  of  55  at  the  time  the  fund  was  established  that  can  at  present  have  attained 
65,  and  it  is  further  considered  that  able-bodied  men  will  not  retire  upon  the  pension  so  long  as 
the  company  allows  them  to  continue  in  their  positions. 

The  number  of  "  provident "  members  on  the  31st  December,  1892,  was  31,239,  and  the 
number  of  "  pension "  members  28,530,  the  balance  to  the  credit  of  the  society  being^ 
;^i43,i5i  i6s.  8d. 

No  separate  accounts  are  kept,  but  it  is  computed  that;^i2o,ooo  of  this  sum  is  due  to  the 
credit  of  the  pension  part  of  the  society,  the  reduction  in  the  provident  portion  of  the  balance 
being  due  to  the  ver>'  heavy  demands  that  have  been  made  upon  the  society  during  the  last  three 
years  in  consequence  of  the  repeated  epidemics  of  influenza  by  which  the  county  has  been  visited. 

No  actuary  was  consulted  when  the  pension  fund  was  established,  nor  has  any  subsequent 
actuarial  valuation  been  made. 

The  members  of  the  society  elect  five  delegates  in  each  of  the  12  districts  into  which  the  line 
is  divided,  and  the  delegates  in  their  turn  appoint  a  eommitteeman  for  each  district,  who,  together 
with  three  gentlemen  nominated  by  the  directors  of  the  company  from  the  committee  of  manage- 
ment, meet  monthly  for  the  transaction  of  the  society's  business. 

A  copy  of  the  last  annual  report  and  statement  of  accounts  is  annexed. 

LONDON  &  NORTH  WESTERN  RAILWAY  PROVIDENT  AND  PENSION  SOCIETY. 
Report  Presented  to  the  Annual  General  Meeting  of  Deleg/^tes  held  at  Crewe,. 
ON  Friday,  24TH  February,  1893. 
The  committee  beg  to  present  the  annexed  statement  of  accounts,  duly  audited,  for  the 
twelve  months  ending  31st  December,  1892,  showing  a  total  balance  to  the  credit  of  the  members, 
of  ;^i43,i5i  i6s.  8d. 

The  heavy  claims  upon  the  funds  of  the  society,  to  which  attention  was  drawn  in  the  last 
report,  have  been  maintained  during  the  past  year,  the  large  amount  paid  in  sick  allowances, 
being  chiefly  due  to  a  recurrence  of  the  influenza  epidemic,  which  is  again  estimated  to  have 
entailed  upon  the  society  an  increased  expense  of  about  £-j,ooo. 

A  considerable  number  of  the  old  servants  of  the  company  retired  from  the  service  during 
the  year  1892,  thus  largely  increasing  the  claimants  for  the  retiring  gratuity,  and  the  payments 
made  by  society  under  this  head. 

The  adoption  by  the  delegates  at  the  special  meeting,  held  on  the  ist  November,  1892,  of  a 
scheme  for  the  payment  of  half  pensions,  under  certain  conditions,  to  members  becoming 
incapacitated  before  attaining  the  age  of  60,  has  rendered  necessary  the  modification  of  several  of 
the  existing  rules  which  have  been  considered  by  the  committee,  and  are  now  submitted  for 
confirmation. 

The  total  number  of  members  of  the  society  on  the  31st  December,  1892,  was  32,856  com- 
pared with  32,277  on  the  31st  December,  1891. 

The  following  figures  show  the  working  of  the  society  during  the  past  four  years : 
Members  Contributing  for  "Provident"  Benefits. — Scales  "A"  "B"  and  "C." 
The  niimber  of  members  contributing  for  "provident"  benefits  on  31st  December,  1892,  was 
31,239,  against  30,521  on  31st  December,  1891,  showing  an  increase  of  718. 

Since  the  allowance  at  the  death  of  a  member  was  introduced,  payments  amounting  to 
;^23,3Q2  6s.  6d.  have  been  made  to  their  representatives,  the  number  of  cases  during  the  last  four 
years  being  as  under: 

ist  Class         2nd  Class 
Members.         Members.  Total. 

ist  January  to  31st  December,  1889 162  •  2  164 

do  do  1890 197  10  207 

do  do  1891 232  3  23s 

do  do  1892 203  6  209 

Since  the  26th  February,  1884,  when  this  form  of  allowance  was  first  adopted,  a  total  sum  of 
£6,4,^^  has  been  paid  to  members  upon  the  death  of  their  wives,  th^  number  of  cases  during  the 
last  four  years  having  been  as  follows : 

No.  of  Cases.  Amount. 

1889 126  ;C63o 

1890 166  ^830 

1891 193  £,9^5 

1892 194  ;i£970 

Weekly  allowances,  amounting  in  the  aggregate  to  ;^22i,955  9s.  id.  (including  the  sum  of 
;^2,957  i6s.  8d.  paid  by  weekly  instalments  for  retiring  gratuities  or  in  excess  of  52  weeks)  have 
been  paid  to  sick  members  since  the  commencement  of  the  society,  the  number  of  cases  during 
the  last  four  years  havfng  been  as  follows : 

Duration. 
No.  of  Cases.  Weeks.  Days. 

1889 9,411  28,101  2% 

1890 14,622  38,554  2j| 

1891 i5>709  43»334  /I 

1892 15,351  42,693  3JI 

Extended  weekly  allowance,  under   rule   22,  amounting  to    £'2,'j6x  8s.  iid.   (in  addition  to 

payments    in    one  sum  to  the  extent  of   £772  7s.  2d.)  has  been  granted;   the  number  of  cases 

during  the  last  four  years  having  been  as  under : 


SUPERANNUA  TION  OF  RAIL  WA  Y  EM  PL  0  YJ^S.  1 8  7 

Duration. 
No.  of  Cases.  Weeks.  Days. 

1889 17  245  5 

1890 19  138  4 

1891.-. 21  258  I 

1892 33  411  3 

The  number  of  sick  members  on  the  allowance  list  at  the  end  of  December,  1872,  was  890. 
Retiring  gratuities,  amounting  to  ;^i7,8oi  i6s.  3d.   (in  addition    to  ;{Jiq6  7s.  gd.  by  weekly 
instalments) ,  has  been  paid  since  this  form  of   allowance  has  been  introduced :    the  number  of 
cases  during  the  last  four  years  having  been  as  follows : 

No.  of  Cases.  Amount  Paid. 

ist  January  to  31st  December,  1889 62  ;£i>522  los. 

do  do        1890 78  ;^2,i74  15s. 

do  do        1891 104  ^3,101  i6s. 

do  do         1892 131  ;^4,o3o  i6s. 

Members  Contributing  for  Pension   Benefits.— Scales  "A"  "B"  and  "C." 
The  number  of    members  contributing    for   pension  benefits  on  31st  December,  1892,  was 
28,530,  against  27.493  on  31st  December,  1891,  showing  an  increase  of  1,037. 

The  number  of  members  who  have  come  upon  the  pension  list  during  the  year  is  53,  making 
a  total  of  103  in  receipt  of  the  allowance  at  31st  December,  1892,  fifteen  of  the  members  drawing 
pensions  having  died. 

The  total  payments  for  pensions  amount  to  ;^3,ii9  19s.  sd. 

G.  P.  Neele,  Chairman. 
L.  H.  Viner,  Secretary. 
Euston  Station,  loth  Februaiy,  1893. 


WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS, 


LONDON  &  NORTHWESTERN  RAILWAY  PROVIDENT  AND  PENSION  SOCIETY. 

STATEMENT  OF  RECEIPTS  AND    EXPENDITURES   TO   THE  31ST  DECEMBER,  1892. 

Debit. 


RECEIPTS. 

Total  to 
SistDeciSgo.* 

Twelve  months  Twelve  months 

ending                 ending 
31st  Dec.  1891.  31st  Dec.  1892. 

Total. 

To  London  &  Northwestern  Com- 
pany's contribution  to  start  the 
society        ...         - 

To  London  &  Northwestern  Com- 
pany's subscription 

To  members'  premiums  and  cards 

To  fines  deducted  from  the  pay  of 
the  staff  and  contributed  by  the 
London  &  Northwestern  Com- 
pany and  various  joint  commit- 
tees   -         -         -         -         - 

To  donations 

To  interest  allowed  by  London  & 
Northwestern  Company  on  bal- 
ances in  their  hands    - 

I       s.    d. 

500    0    0 

50,322     I  II 
261,733  18  II 

6,308  II     3 
10    0 

28,840  13    5 

£,        s.    d. 

6,887    4    I 
30,877    4    4 

292    6  10 
5,089  10  10 

£.        s.    d. 

6,966     I     7 
32,503  18     I 

344     2     4 
5,405  18    6 

£.       s.    d. 
500    0    0 

64,175     7     7 
325,115     I     4 

6,945    0     5 
10    0 

39,336     2     9 

Total     .... 

347,705  15    6 

43,146     6     I       45>22o    0    6     436,072     2     I 

To  balance  ;{Ji43,i5i  i6s.  8d. 


Credit. 

Total  to 
31st  Dec.  1 8c 

Twelve  months  Twelve  months 

EXPENDITURES. 

)0.* 

ending 
31st  Dec.  1891. 

ending 
31st  Dec.  1892. 

Total. 

£       s. 

d. 

I       s. 

d. 

£.       s. 

d. 

£       s.    d. 

By  death  allowances  (members) 

19,002    5 

II 

2,325  14 

0 

2,064     6 

7 

23,392    6    6 

By  death   allowances    (members' 

wives)         .... 

4,540    0 

0 

965    0 

0 

970    0 

0 

6,475    0    0 

By    weekly     allowances    paid     to 

members    -         -         -         - 

171,275  II 

10 

25,487  13 

S 

25,192     3 

10 

221,955    9    I 

By  special  grants  under  Rule  22  in 

addition   to   cases   in   which    a 

weekly  payment  has  been  con- 
tinued       .... 

717  17 

2 

20    0 

0 

34  10 

0 

772    7    2 

By  retiring  gratuities  - 

10,669     4 

3 

3,101  16 

0 

4,030  16 

0 

17,801  16     3 

By  pensions    -         -         -         - 

487  15 

4 

906     5 

10 

1,725  18 

3 

3,119  19    5 

By   returned   half  pension  premi- 

ums -         -         -         -         - 

17  10 

4 

26    0 

10 

43  II     2 

By  stationery  and  stamps    - 

1,495  II 

0 

155    8 

9 

■  155  15 

3 

1,806  15     0 

By  salary  of  secretary  and  clerks, 

etc.          .... 

7,365  17 

10 

827  12 

7 

856     0 

5 

9,049  10  10 

By  delegates  expenses,  etc.      - 

840     3 

6 

82  12 

8 

109    7 

b 

1,032     3  10 

By  expenses  of  sick  visiting,  etc. 

2,871  19 

10 

283     4 

II 

293    6 

7 

3,448  II     4 

By  medical  fees 

2,874  17 

7 

517     I 

0 

576  12 

8 

3,968  II     3 

By  miscellaneous  payments 

42  15 

7 

II     8 

0 

54     3     7 

By  balance      -         -         -         - 

125,521  15 

8 

8,456    6 

7 

9>i73  14 

5 

143,151   16     8 

Total     .... 

347,705  15 

6 

43,146    6 

I 

45,220    0 

6 

436,072     2     I 

*  Including  amounts  brought  forward  from  London  &  Northwestern  Railway  Provident 
Society  and  London  &  Northwestern  Railway  Pension  Fund,  upon  the  amalgamation  of  these 
societies  on  ist  January,  1889. 

Note. — There  are,  in  addition  to  the  payments  shown  above,  claims  and  other  expenses  now 
in  course  of  payment  incurred  in  December,  1892,  amounting  to  ;£648  4s.  od.,  and  the  balance 
•will  be  reduced  to  that  extent. 

Examined  and  found  correct, 

Hv.  T.  Aiken,  \  .    j- 

Thos.  Parker,  \  A"°'toi's-  l.  H.  Viner, 

Euston  Station,  4th  February,  1893.  Secretary  of  the  Society. 


SUPERANNUATION  OF  RAILWAY  EMPLOYES. 


189 


o  2 

H 
U     en  hi 

o  5 
o  ;5 


■S3siiacix3  ssojQ  sssj 
sjaqui3j\[  p3;,UBJ3dns 

-UO>J  04  pUB  Xq  S1U3U1 

-XBd  uaa.wiaq  S3DU3J9 


v^  M        •* 


•sjaqiuajv  pajBnuuE 
•jadns  jo  atpa^D  mojj 


2  a^'BS 


!5?  a 


^ 


■*  moo  M  00  o^ 


m  m  H  IT)  moo  m  o  t^  t^  ,  __  ,  .  .__  __  _ 
J  1-^  H^  q;  q_  in  iQ  O^  >o  H^  t^vo^  m  q;  moo^  n,'^oo_ 
^\o  \o  m  cT  m  m  iriocT  -^  cT  ■>?  tC  ■<?  cT  inoo' 


IT)  moo  t^  u-i  t^  «  o  N 
(N  M  m  M  »n\o  N  -^vo 
O  H  M^  N-oo  (>.o^oo_  -^ 
O  t^  tCoo  in  (>  in  o^ 


\nco  IT)  m  moo  m  m  1 


hvohoOmOnhOhh 


-d 

2 

c 
« 

'3 
fi 

Q 

s?  ::::::::  : 

C5 

3 

a 
c 
2 

d 

^ 

........         .    .    •    •  N  0    •  (N  H  m. 

c 

v{  ::;:::::  : 

ir5vr)ir)0-<l--*Hio  moo 

minNoo  mH  m  mo  m 

::::::::     MHmTj-  moo  m  h  ^j-  »n 

S2 

1  ::::::::  : 

.     .     .     -     .     .     .     .        loinmOHHHomm 

^ 
^ 

ll 

l-J  c 

s?  :::::::::::::::::  :      :::::::::: 

^ 

oi 

0 

^ 

H  0  m  invo  H  o^  0  ^  vO  m  O^  t^vo 
lOO  Noo  o  m-*-o-4-i-i  u^■^^c^■*■<l■ 
miOTj-o  loiDNOo  ■<^f^  m  inoo  •* 


T^u^HvDvo  CI  o>H 
H  t^mooo  ooo> 

0>  On  t>.  t^OO    IT)  in  w 


O  vo  \o  m  o  I 


•*  mvo  O  t^vo  t^  m  On  N 
H  moo  m  tv  M  m  m  Tj-  o 


,\o  ^  m  On  m  ■* 


mtvN  mmON'^NNO  000 


loovo  ■>*-  -"J-OO  M  o^ 
I    tx  H    On  M    0    N    N 


■*  ■*  H    mNO    H  NO    t^ 
N    N    P~ONt-.f^0    t^ 

NO~N£r  -^  o"  ■*  -^  m  cT 


>nO  NO  N  O  IN  On  H 
.  m  Tj-  0  00  00  O  On 
M^  t^  On  m  CJ^  ON  M^ 

I  0  m  lONo"  cTno"  On 


O  i-i  00  ON  OnoO  h  On  m  O 
NO  moo  m  m  On  M  o  on  O 
Tj-NO  NO  mn  ■^■■♦qNmm 
t^NO  00  m  c5~  m  I 
m      NO  H  t^  I 


2s; 


00  ON-*mN  miHNO^D  Noo  o 


On  N    M    in  t^"lN    On  ON  o;  N    mm    O    O    uTO    NOnm         OOONmmo'.  ._. 

V.J  N  m  mNO  mMoo  o  onO  t.'^'^'^'C^  •^'^       '^J  ^  '^  *t,  "v;*^  '^  ^^"^ 
M        fT       mM-^MioHtC  M  00        M  o  cT  m  cT  in  moo 


Ic 


■<f  -^oo  o  -^no  no  n  on  h  tj-  in  o  mNO  H  mvo 

80  mvo  t^  m  o  •«»-oo  moo  w  m  n  o  m  moo 
^  O  00  00  tvNO  '*oq;oqNONN  -^no^  m  H^ 
^*^  m  m  M  -^  w  NO  eTd^M'HMmcrmNtCcrd" 


O  NO  00  -"l-OO  N  ON  M  H  N 
-»*-  N  NO  On  M  M  •<l-vo  00  -"l- 
t^  On  M    O    C^OO^  1  <5  "^  ^ 

cT  cT  mNO  m  ON  -^  m  ■^oo 


I  mvo  t^  m  o  -^00  mi 
1^00^00  t;.NO  -^  q_  O;  q^ 
T  m"  Tt  ►Tno'^  n"  O^  m    hT 


m  o  mNQ  H  mNO 
w  M  N  o  m  mco 
q^  ^1  ^1  "^^^  "2  "^ 
m  N  m  N  t^  N  o 


-^-no  ! 


O  NO  00  -^oo  (N  o^ 

Tf  N  vO    On  M    M  -^- 
t^  On  H    O    t^OO 

cT  N  mNO  m  o^  ■<?  m  ■^06' 

N        cj        CI  m       m 

*        #        #  *        # 

•«j-       m     \o  r^     00 


IQO 


WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 


o  >j 

§1 

SI 


w 


I 

pL,    5 

iz; 

w  < 


o 


CO 


•S3SU3dx3  SSOJQ  SS3( 

sjsquisiv  paj.uBiadns 
-UOK  O}  puB  Xq  sjuam 

-XBd  U33AViaq  S33U3J3 

-jjipSupq  'jijoJd  JSK 

m      o        o>       t^      N 

s^JJ;    o    ?    S    2 

-*^       in      00        w        ■* 

H              1-              M              «              C< 

•sisquiaj^  psiBnuuB 
-jadns  JO  jipa-^D  "lO-'J 
paajajsuBix  aunoiuy 

■^g  -f  S  a  1 

?:l'cS'S    ^d^vS^I: 

►-        K        m       -"i-      in 

inco        OW        minoo        m        n 

M              M              M              M             «              N 

Amount  Stand- 
ing to  Credit 
of  Present 
Members. 

t^     00       o      o      -^ 

-1  1  1  t  1 

0        000       mMco        mt^fs 

•  t-.       in      CO        t^       t>. 

►7  ■*       in       t^       w        ro 
"^  «        ei        «        mm 

0        t^H       omci       in     00       m 

1 

m  t^  o\o  H  t^  M  00  m  M 

mn  mino  mw  t^ooo 

vj  9,  •Q  =2:  t  -^  f::=°  "C  «  ^. 

^M    t>.K    OM    H    N    TMnO 

m  ir.  t^  moo   m  0   m  n   m  0  m  mvo   ■*  m  0  O 

HSgM00H0«gC^M^C.^OHC.;5; 

en 

z 
u 

s 

g 

Q 

lit 

•^r^tmtsrs 

Own  moo  H  H  0  -"j-^  w  CO  m  H  -.1-  in  moo 

M              M              M              M              « 

0        0        Ci        mmmn--*T)- 

1 

2 

s 

1 

en 
i2 

1 

in 

C 
n 

•■s 

5 
C 
S 

< 

0 

"^  :::::::::  : 

M  M  c)  moo  H  t^oo 

:::::::::  ■.%%''%S^^Zq 

^    [  ^    [  ^  ro«   H   rx    .   t^ 

vom^m^oc  H^mocj^OHOoo^m 

c 
.2 
c 

00    w    N    ■*  rJ-OO    000    H    0 

s?  ^  q,  t^ »::  ►ioo  t:  ^«i  <! 

N       WHmMinwt^ 

&  E  s^  ^  ^"^^  s  1;l!l^^  ^1  ^l'  H 
Ho;crHor;fmtCmo-^io^oi;i^i;so 

d^OMOOovoinmc* 

*^sK^v8~S"^KEor^s;2-^^s 

Il 

s?  :  :22  :22S^  :i^ 

N  vo  vo  m  N  m  moo    •  00  0  00    •  co  -^i-  m  inoo 

0    •    -Of)    •  «  M  m   ■  m 

moo  HO-i-comm  •m■<^t^  -t^ooNH 

1 
5 

B 

g 

I 

3 

as 

:z: 

e 

t 

Pi 

s,gltl:5'§~IP,Ki 

m  m  •<*-oo  ■*  f)  0  ci  0  N  -^vo  0  ^  m  000  t^ 

t^     coMONNHm 

wmHOH00H0MgMm«.OHC«HO 

;2;"0o.mm^momm 

0    ■*  0  0    0  mvO    M    t^OO    000HOC4MHN 

'i-oo  t^  m  m  H  M  m  moo  ■<i-N  mmcjoo  ot^ 

■*c^-^e)  Tj-t^-^M  m-*  moo  m  w  m  ti-  w  t>. 

m       '*>-«-min.mvo^ovo 

1 

v^m^inom^o   M^mt;. 

^      vo        tC      00'       0  m  N   H   m  H  m  h  vo 

J^             „              M             M             N              « 

§  v|  j^  p  s  ^  s.  ?;|_=s  ;  ^'^  ^s  ?r  1 

f3< 

e2 

?.?L2oS-?J,^g^i!?5^ 

^<  m  ci  -<l-vo  in  0  ^N  0  000 

5  t^  m  m  N  vo  q  \o^  H,  ":;  ^.,  °  0  0  ^i,  '^  <5  ^ 
H  0  cT  cT  -^vo  vo  cToo"  QOMNm-^^tCtCi^ 

c 

i^  0  vq_  ^  0,00^  q;  f:>  N  t;:  0. 
N        m       m       ■«■       •«»■ 

■*mo-<i-t>-i-(  mmc4  t^Moo  o>  t>.oo  ^  m  0 

J 
1 

it 

~  ■^^  «  •<*■  t^  m  mvo  ovo  m 
^       ■*      in      in     vo 

II 

f^  in  moo  00  *o  mow  0 

^<  tc  (N  Tj-  p»  in  -m^o  Ovo  m 
^       ■*      m      m     vo 
*       #       #       *       # 

ONOMMNi-im  m^o  m  0^  in  n  t^  m  00 

*    *    *    *    * 

P^ 

1^     1-     1-     1-     <^ 

-j-mvo        t^oo       00        H        0 

SUPERANNUATION  OF  RAILWAY  EMPLOYES, 


IQI 


U 


X   I 


•sasuadxH  ssojo  ssai 
sisqmsK  paj.uBisdng 
-uo>j  oj  put  Xq  s;uam 

-Xl3d  U33M}Sq  S3DUaj3 

-jgipSuisq'iyoad  }3X 

•sjaqtuajv  pajenuuB 
-jsdns  JO  Iip3i3  uioaj 
pajiajsuEJX  aunouiy 

^1 

mvo         w         S.'^o^nS'S-ov 

i,   i,    l   ^   i,   i   ^  ^^   z{   '^ 

§2£e 

M 

.*-oo^mint^in(nin.^oo 

rncTocTrndin^-e)        t)        h 
M        m-^vooD        ONH        mmt^ 
(N(NfiNC4<N(ncnm(n 

tr^       ^       0        ^       0        mmoo        N        t^ 
inmmmmmmvONONO 

^    ON    0 

HiiitH  1  mills  ra? 

0>  On  cT  w   .^no   rnONininTfoloi^frfi   cT-^tCcT 

d   On  ro  fo  roNO   tn  ON  tn  m  <n\o   mO   ^m-^ON^j--* 

m^j-ThM-mmNovONO        t-. 

i 

CQ 

0 

o|^ 

ON    tV 

m 

rf  w  t^oo  t^  m  w  t^  w  onoo  t-^NO  m  w  moo  m  n  ml 

0  mMNO   0   r^t^.*c>.H  m  t^oo  no   M  oo   f  i   m   n   m 

Tj-  ^no   q  (n  rn  m  no^  d   "^  "^  ^^  '^°°   ^  ^  <^  'C!  ^^^ 

\r,      \0       ^      ^      ^       tC       t^      00       co"      00 

1* 

rt 

3 
C 
C 

2 

3 

1 

c 
n 

'3 

a 
s 

< 

^^t 

vo  N  IN  .*  m  onvo  m  moo  T^  o  o  n  m  roNO  os  -*  m 
t^.^M  int^f)  0  m  moo  .<^m■«l-r^woo  ONc^t^m 
.^0  cnmiNNO  M  t>.N  Onm  m  h  w  mmmONrom 

■^ 

(N        o        NO.<J-.^mmmmvo 

|-S 

E.^2tc:t:s«'S;°°o'^s-2^'^S2?;2^ 

c 
.2 

^i| 

mom  t^oo  mo  m.<^ONm■,^-^^M00  on  t^NO  m  on 

^'  i^''^  "^i^'  ^^'^g:  ^cS^  '^  5n  H  ^i  ^'s 

I-? 

.mH.o«j^M0.MONHH.mMj.c,t.c.8 

1§ 

Mi€ 

mM        o   „  m  M   Tj-       m      no   m  O- m  m  a- -<-       m 

:  cT 

mmmmmmm^mm 

o    .  « 

^^"^"^"§^"^"^,^^"■'5-'^^"^ 

i 

C 

c 

1 

1 

% 

I 

s,ll 

0  00  NO   .*oo   mmc^mcivo   OnO  on  t---o  no   mvo  a^ 

"S, 

cimMmHt^iNONiNdMmNmHt^MONHO 

off. 

t^t^t^oooooooooo        Snon 

H     t^ 

5-do  m"m  o  o  5-4-I^m?^mo^  m'm.co"  o^Ht   m  m 

vo  Onoo  00  'O  m  .,^  onoo  t^oo  vo  c^'j-mr^mi-  o  -* 

MOO  M  dHrfTwmcrNOinfrH'fNvopraNmer 

MN        o        d        (N        mmmm-* 

vo  >4-t~.M  m-^Nvo  -^  0  rr,  'no^ti  n  tj-no  own 

mmoco  mM  m-^o  j-.mo  o  mci  mmONmo 

mmNONOvo       t^t^t^t^oo 

i 

1 

%5 

Qvo  mONfi  M  m.*f)vo  fjoo  mm  mvo  m  onvo  m 
mo  int^Tj-o   om   ri-  m-o   w  cc    c   On  o-no   mjo  rfl 

O    H  00    ONNO  vo    OnvO  00    r^C0    m  O  vo    C  vo    O-O    M  00 

en  m 

iiu  1 H  r^  HI  s»  i  S?  ?|  -g 

h"^ 

mMvo  ^^t^moN-^^o  mn  c-^mo  -<r  mvo  o  ov  m 

MvOMt^MOVMMomomNooiNOomovo 

MMHOowommm 

§ 
1 

Ji 

ON  <N 
H  VO 

"I  ':;  t  '^  "^  "^  "t  "^^  '^  "^  ^  "t  '^  °^  ^^  m  On  m 
cTno"  m  (>  m  m  mvo'  m  d  m  -^^  ^^kT  m  rn  in  d^vo  no' 

Mt^MOOMOMHHmM-rt-Mmwt^MOOMOl 

BE 

m  M 

0  M  t^oo  On  t>.  M  00  in  m  H  ■<^vo  o  oo  oo  ■*  o  m  m 
MHooiNoocsom 

.1 

1 

i 

1  f  i  t  g  f  1  1-  1  § 

192  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

D. 
LONDON  &  NORTHWESTERN  RAILWAY  COMPANY'S  SUPERANNUATION  FUND. 

The  London  &  Northwestern  Railway  superannuation  fund  has  now  been  in  existence  forty 
years  ;  it  is  the  largest  and  oldest  Railway  superannuation  fund  in  the  United  Kingdom. 

The  following  are  its  salient  features:  Ever^'  salaried  officer  on  entering  the  service  under 
25  years  of  age  is  compelled  to  join,  paying  2^/^  per  cent  on  his  salary  monthly,  the  company 
siniultaneously  contributing  a  like  sum.  They  are  also  the  trustees  and  bankers  of  the  fund  and 
as  such  credit  it  with  interest  at  the  rate  of  4  per  cent  per  annum.  Pension  can  be  obtained  by 
any  member  after  attaining  age  60  as  per  scale  on  page  14  of  Deed  Poll,  and  any  one  who  has 
been  a  contributor  for  not  less  than  10  years  who  by  reason  of  failing  health  is  incapacitated  from 
performing  his  duties,  can  claim  his  pension  as  per  scale  prior  to  attaining  60  years  of  age. 

The  committee  have  power  on  the  application  of  a  superannuated  member  to  commute  his  pen- 
sion, but  they  cannot  under  any  circumstances  give  him  more  than  5  years'  purchase. 

In  the  event  of  any  member  dying'  be/ore  being  pensioned,  his  representatives  receive  a  sum 
equal  to  a  half  year's  average  salary,  but  if  that  amount  be  less  than  the  total  of  his  own  and  the 
company's  contributions  on  his  behalf,  then  the  total  amount  of  such  united  contributions  is  paid. 
Should  a  superannuated  member  die  before  he  has  received  as  pension  the  amount  he  and  the 
company  contributed  to  the  fund,  his  representatives  receive  the  difference  between  such  total  con- 
tributions and  the  pension  paid. 

■Members  resigning  the  service  of  their  own  accord  are  repaid  one-half  of  their  own  contri- 
butions. Members  dismissed  by  the  company  are  repaid  the  whole  of  their  own  contributions,  and 
members  dismissed  for  fraud  forfeit  all,  but  at  the  discretion  of  the  committee, 

J.  Parkhouse,  Secretary  to  the  Fund. 

Euston  Station,  17th  May,  1893, 

GENERAL  REMARKS. 

When  the  London  &  Northwestern  Fund  was  started  in  1853  any  one  was  allowed  to  join 
during  the  first  year,  irrespective  of  age,  and  numbers  availed  themselves  of  the  offer,  so  that  of 
the  first  50  who  retired  through  old  age  and  took  their  pension,  only  one  joined  the  fund  under  40 
years  of  age,  and  as  the  actuaries  in  examining  the  fund  9  years  ago  for  the  first  time  informed  us 
that  all  persons  entering  after  age  25  were  a  loss,  it  will  at  once,  be  seen  how  the  fund  was  handi- 
capped by  many  who  joined  during  the  first  year.  Of  the  present  number  of  contributing  mem- 
bers ''6,547)  about  1,000  commenced  to  contribute  at  varying  ages  between  25  and  40,  so  that  it 
will  be  some  years  yet  before  all  these  unprofitable  members  are  worked  off, 

I  mention  these  points,  because  large  numbers  of  the  members  seeing  the  balance  in  hand  is 
increasing  so  rapidly  year  by  year  think  that  the  benefits  might  be  very  considerably  improved  ; 
it  is  quite  possible  they  might,  but  the  increase  in  the  balance  in  hand  is  no  proof.  The  number 
of  pensioners  now  on  the  fund  is  156,  but  a  statement  was  compiled  showing  the  numbers  con- 
tributing in  1883  in  the  various  ages,  and  after  deducting  the  numbers  that  will  fall  out  through 
secessions  (i.e.,  resignation,  dismissal  and  death)  it  was  found  that  in  the  year  1917  we  should 
have  392  pensioners  on  the  fund  if  they  deferred  taking  their  pensions  to  age  65,*  but  if  they 
elected  to  take  their  pensions  at  60  as  they  might,  then  we  should  have  591  on  the  fund  ;  this  is 
apart  from  those  coming  on  the  fund  through  incapacity,  and  up  to  now  almost  as  many  have  been 
pensioned  through  incapacity  as  old  age.  We  have  also,  since  the  above  forecast  as  to  pensioners 
was  made,  increased  our  contributing  members  by  over  1,200,  all  of  whom  are  very  young.  These 
figures  are  referred  to  to  show  that  we  have  not  yet  reached  anything  like  our  maximum  liability 
as  some  suppose. 

The  fund  is  now  on  the  eve  of  its  next  quinquennial  valuation  by  the  actuaries, 

I  enclose  a  comparative  statement  of  receipts  and  disbursements,  showing  the  working  of  the 
fund  during  the  whole  period  of  its  existence,  with  a  copy  of  the  Deed  Poll  ('rules),  last  balance 
sheet  and  last  two  actuaries'  reports,  and  also  copies  of  the  last  two  reports  on  the  fund  by  the 
Members'  Committee  setting  forth  their  views  on  the  subject, 

Euston  Station,  17th  May,  1893,  J,  Parkhouse,  Secretary  to  the  Fund. 


GRAND  TRUNK  RAILWAY  OF  CANADA  SUPERANNUATION  AND  PROVIDENT 
FUND  ASSOCIATION. 

Montreal,  July  8,  1889. 
To  the  Members  of  the  Association  : 

The  Committee  of  Management  have  received  the  report  of  the  actuaries,  Messrs.  Frederick 
Hendriks  and  Ralph  P.  Hardy,  of  London,  England,  of  the  results  of  their  investigation  into  the 
working  of  the  fund  in  the  quinquennium  ending  31st  December,  1886,  and  of  their  valuation  of 
the  assets  and  liabilities  of  the.fund  at  that  date.  The  report  states  that  the  statistical  record  of 
the  new  entries  has  been  properly  kept  up  by  the  officers  of  the  fund,  and  that  the  actuaries  have 
tabulated  therefrom  the  experience  of  the  quinquennium  for  each  age  passed  through  by  the  mem- 
bers of  the  fund,  and  they  have  compared  the  results  with  those  deducted  for  the  period  1876-81, 
and  enumerated  in  their  previous  report  of  i6th  June,  1884.  Taken  as  a  whole,  the  experiences 
of  the  last  five  years  practically  coincide  with  that  of  the  previous  period. 

On  the  31st  December,  1886,  the  fund  consisted  of  559  members,  389  of  whom  joined  in  the 
five  years  to  that  date,  leaving  only  170  members  remaining  of  the  424  on  the  books  at  31st 
December,  1881. 

This  ratio  of  retirement  corresponds  with  the  previous  experience,  but  it  cannot  he  determined 


*  Age  64  is  the  average  at  which  such  members  take  their  pensions. 


APPLIANCES  FOR  SAFETY  OF  EMPLOYES.  *  193 

what  may  be  the  secessions  for  the  future.  Having  given  these  facts  and  the  construction  they 
may  possibly  bear  a  ver>'  full  consideration,  and  after  weighing  all  the  circumstances,  Messrs. 
Hendriks  and  Hardy  have  estimated  the  financial  condition  of  the  fund,  the  rate  of  interest  on 
investments  having  declined  from  six  per  cent  (which  rate  they  used  at  the  last  valuation),  and 
taking  five  per  cent,  as  the  more  probable  net  rate,  over  the  immediate  future,  if  the  pensions 
emerge  on  retirement  at  age  58  there  is  a  nominal  surplus. 

The  practical  conclusion,  in  their  judgment,  is  that,  for  all  reasonable  purposes,  it  may  fairly 
be  taken  that  the  fund  is  solvent.  At  present  there  is  a  small  margm  existing  in  the  surplus 
beyond  the  assumed  five  per  cent  rate  of  interest,  which  may  be  set  against  the  expenses  of 
administration.  They  are  decidedly  of  opinion  that  there  should  be  no  increase  in  the  benefits  or 
reduction  of  the  comributions. 

While  the  above  results  are  such  as,  in  their  opinion,  may  be  safely  accepted,  yet  if  a  fall 
takes  place  in  the  rate  of  secession  (retirement  from  the  service)  whereby  the  liabilities  are  not 
relieved  to  the  extent  provided  for  by  the  present  calculations,  it  may  hereafter  become  necessary 
to  strengthen  future  valuation  estimates,  and  so  make  an  adjustment  upon  the  existing  scale  of 
benefits. 

I  may  state  that  at  the  present  time  investments  are  being  made  for  the  fund  at  5%  per  cent 
per  annum,  the  entire  amount  invested  yields  5.47  per  cent  per  annum.  All  the  investments  are 
perfectly  good,  the  interest  is  regularly  paid,  and  no  loss  of  any  kind  has  been  sustained  in  the 
fifteen  years  of  the  existence  of  the  fund.  T.  B.  Hawson,  Secretary. 


APPLIANCES   FOR   THE    SAFETY  OF    RAILWAY  EMPLOYES. 


HON.    L.    S.    COFFIN,     FORT    DODGE,  IOWA. 


Doubtless  no  paper  read  before  this  railway  congress  will  have  to 
deal  with  a  question  of  greater  vital  interest,  both  to  the  great  traveling 
public  and  to  the  now  vast  army  of  railroad  employes,  than  this  of  safety 
appliances  connected  with  handling  cars  and  running  trains.  Great 
and  absolutely  beyond  the  grasp  of  the  mind  to  properly  conceive  of 
the  value  to  us  as  a  nation  as  are  the  advantages  accruing  to  us  from 
railway  transportation  of  what  we  term  freight,  still  all  this  weighs  as  of 
little  worth  when  life  is  in  the  other  scale  of  the  balance.  This  trite 
saying  expresses  it  :  "  What  is  all  the  world  to  a  man  when  his  wife  is 
a  widow?"  What  matters  it  if  I  can  take  my  cars  of  stock  to  a  great 
contral  market  from  my  farm  500  miles  away  in  twenty-four  hours,  if 
after  disposing  of  that  stock  at  good  prices,  on  my  homeward  journey 
with  the  proceeds  in  my  pocket,  I  lose  my  life  in  a  wreck  caused  by 
lack  of  proper  safety  appliances? 

While  we  want  quick  transportation  for  our  stuff- we  want  safe  as 
well  as  rapid  transit  for  ourselves  7nore.  But  where,  in  the  history  of 
the  marvelous  development  of  railroad  facilities,  shall  we  begin  the 
discussion  of  safety  appliances  ? 

A  careful  study  of  the  exhibits  in  yonder  transportation  building 
will  not  only  surprise  but  serve  to  correct  us  in  the  matter  of  dates  as  to 
the  original  idea  and  use  of  rails  for  roadways  for  heavy  traffic.  We 
are  accustomed  to  look  back  to  1830,  when  the  Manchester  &  Liver- 
pool railway  was  opened,  as  the  birthday  of  railroads.  While  it  may 
be  true  that  about  this  date  commenced  the  application  of  steam  for 
propelling  carriages  upon  "  tram  "  or  railways,  we  must  go  back  yet  200 
years  further  at  least,  to  find  the  first  railway  used  in  England.  It 
may  help  our  memory  some  to  associate  the  first  recorded  use  of  rails 
laid  from  the  collieries  at  Newcastle  to  the  shipping  docks  with  the 
landing   of   the    Pilgrim    fathers  upon  the  shores  of   the   new  world. 


194  •  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

These  rails  were  made  of  plank  six  feet  long,  four  inches  thick.  The 
wooden  rails  were  in  course  of  time  worn  and  rendered  unsafe,  and  to 
remedy  this  plates  of  iron  were  spiked  upon  them  and  the  men  who  did 
this  work  soon  become- known  as  "  plate  layers,"  a  name  today  used  in 
some  parts  of  England  to  denote  the  men  who  lay  the  safer  thirty  feet 
steel  rail,  of  86  to  90  lbs.  to  the  yard — a  striking  contrast  truly 
between  the  kind  of  rails. 

These  iron  plated  rails  of  course  caused  rapid  wear  to  the  old 
wooden  wheels  of  the  carts,  and  for  safety,  in  1750,  cast  iron  wheels 
were  introduced.  In  1765,  the  iron  plated  rails  gave  place  to  cast  rails 
three  feet  long,  four  inches  wide,  with  a  flange  on  the  inner  side  to 
guide  the  wheels. 

In  1789,  engineer  William  Jessop,  in  building  a  railroad  from 
Loughborough  ko  Leicestershire,  made  a  wonderful  forward  step  in  the 
safety  line  by  abandoning  the  flanged  rail  and  bringing  in  the  flanged 
wheel.  Here,  let  us  note,  was  the  advent  of  one  of  the  great  appliances 
upon  which  depends  the  safety  of  all  railroad  travel  and  traffic  of  the 
present  hour,  viz. :  the  flanged  wheel.  Who  of  us  ever  thinks,  when 
rounding  a  sharp  curve  in  a  palace  car  at  fifty  miles  an  hour,  that 
William  Jessop,  an  almost  forgotten  engineer  and  mechanic  of  Eng- 
land 100  years  ago  invented  and  brought  out  the  very  idea  that  today 
is  the  great  practical  safety  appliance  that  holds  our  flying  trains  in 
safety  to  the  rail  ? 

It  might  be  interesting  and  instructive  to  follow  up  step  by  step  the 
changes  and  progress  made  both  in  wheel  and  rail  as  well  as  in  the 
substructure;  but  over  there  in  the  White  City  this  can  all  be  taken  in 
by  object  lessons.  How  natural,  too,  it  was  to  think  that  the  firmer  and 
more  solid  the  foundation  upon  which  the  rails  were  laid  the  safer  it 
would  be,  and  at  what  immense  cost  were  stone  pillars  and  sleepers 
put  down  on  which  to  lay  the  rails.  How  many  thousands  of  dollars  it 
has  cost  to  learn  that  '•  elasticity  "  in  the  substructure  is  an  essential 
safety  appliance.  Not  only  in  old  England  but  in  our  New  England, 
early  pioneers  in  railroad  building  had  to  pay  dear  to  learn  this  impor- 
tant lesson. 

But  leaving  these  days  of  small  beginnings,  which  however  are  not 
to  be  despised,  we  come  down  or  rather  up  to  the  wondrous  and 
magnificent  achievements  of  the  present.  It  is  utterly  useless  to  attempt 
to  find  qualifying  words  to  suitably  express  the  status  of  railroad  trans- 
portation as  it  confronts  us  in  this  A.D.  1893,  and  as  we  see  it  in 
epitome  in  yonder  building.  To  say  that  today  the  safest  possible  way 
of  locomotion  is  by  the  steam  railroad  car  is  but  simply  stating  an 
absolute  fact.  Here  is  seen  the  crowning  triumph  of  inventive  talent, 
mechanical  ability  and  skill  such  as  the  world  has  never  before  wit- 
nessed. A  passenger  train  of  cars  hurled  through  space  at  the  enor- 
mous velocity  of  65  to  70  miles  an  hour  with  as  much  or  more  safety 
to  each  of  its  200  to  500  passengers  as  if  riding  behind  his  own  old 
family  horse  drawing  the  stout  family  wagon,  is  the  marvel  of  this  pres- 
ent hour.  Somebody,  somewhere,  has  done  a  great  deal  of  hard  think- 
ing, and  somebody  has  done  a  great  deal  of  honest  and  faithful  experi- 
menting and  reduced  to  practical  application  the  results  of  this  hard 
thinking. 

All  of  us  who  take  part  here  can  well   remember  the  nervous  fear 


APPLIANCES  FOR  SAFE  TV  OF  EM  PL  O  V£S.  1 9  5 

we  had  of  telescoping  when  riding  on  trains  prior  to  the  advent  of  the 
Miller  hook  and  platform.  Some  of  us  may  carry  to  our  graves  the 
scars  received  from  the  jerks  and  shocks  common  to  all  passenger 
trains  coupled  with  the  old  style  link  and  pin  and  controlled  or 
attempted  to  be  controlled  by  hand  brakes.  In  the  blaze  and  glory  of 
the  achievements  of  the  present  in  railway  travel  it  is  difficult  for  us  to 
realize  that  it  was  so  few  years  back  that  the  public  was  well  pleased 
with  what  are  now  to  us  unsafe  and  rude  appliances  on  trains. 

The  advancement  in  safety  appliances  on  passenger  trains  is  some- 
thing wonderful  for  the  rapid  succession  of  improvements.  To  the 
memory  of  those  who  have  participated  in  and  have  been  in  a  sense  a 
part  of  it,  it  is  nearly  like  that  which  presents  itself  to  the  eye  in  the 
transportation  building  on  the  grounds  in  Jackson  park.  We  are  look- 
ing for  the  moment  on  the  crude,  the  rough,  the  uncomfortable,  the 
slow  and  tedious,  and  in  many  respects  unsafe  methods  of  travel  of  the 
near  past.  We  turn  and  in  the  next  minute  we  are  revelling  in  all  the 
luxurious  belongings  of  the  time,  distance  and  danger  annihilating, 
vestibule  palace  train  of  the  hour  now,  and  standing  at  its  head  this 
marvel  of  our  century  the  present  improved  locomotive  "  No.  999"  and 
its  equal  fellows. 

But  what  one  thing  of  all  that  so  greatly  interests  every  spectator  in 
these  magnificent  outfits  for  rapid  and  safe  transit  above  all  others 
gives  such  unparalleled  safety  to  that  ponderous  engine  and  its  modern 
parlors  and  sleeping  apartments  on  wheels.  Next  in  importance  for 
safety  to  the  flange  on  the  wheel  which  holds  that  wheel  to  the  track  is 
the  necessity  of  some  mighty  power  to  grasp  that  wheel  in  a  vice-like 
grip  to  stop  its  roll  when  its  continued  motion  would  carry  the  train  to 
danger.  The  common  hand  brake  was  found  to  be  on  this  greatly 
increased  weight  of  improved  engines  and  cars  utterly  incompetent  and 
unsafe.  Various  forms  of  power  brakes  were  brought  out  by  inventors; 
chain,  buffer,  straight  air  vacuum  and  other  forms  of  brakes  were 
tried,  and  while  some  of  them  were  a  great  advance  over  the  hand 
brakes  yet  the  great  want  was  not  met  until  the  advent  of  the  Westing- 
house  automatic  air  brake.  The  myriads  of  humanity  that  now  travel 
owe  a  debt  to  George  R.  Westinghouse  Jr.  they  can  never  pay.  It 
matters  not  how.  many  good  and  great  inventors  may  travel  in  roads 
now  made  plain,  to  George  Westinghouse  is  due  the  honor  of  going 
ahead  and  blazing  the  trees  that  enables  lesser  daring  ones  to  follow. 

It  is  not  the  design  of  this  paper  to  advertise  or  duly  extol  any  one 
method  or  man  ;  simple  facts  and  strict  justice  are  the  ends  sought. 
The  speaker  perhaps  more  than  any  other  man  outside  of  railroad 
circles  and  the  inventors  and  makers  of  power  brakes  can  speak  with 
more  confident  intelligence  upon  this  point  and  he  hopes  to  be  able  to 
do  this  without  offensive  egotism. 

It  was  his  privilege  as  a  state  railroad  commissioner  of  Iowa  to  be 
honored  with  an  invitation  from  the  committee  of  experts  from  the 
Master  Car  Builders  association  to  participate  in  the  noted  brake  tests 
at  Burlington  on  the  C.  B.  &  Q.  railroad  in  charge  of  this  committee  in 
1886  and  1887.  While  the  object  sought  in  these  tests  was  to  find  some 
practical  power  brake  suitable  for  freight  train  service,  the  want  of 
which  was  beginning  to  be  felt  as  imperative  and  which  will  be  dis- 
cussed farther  on,  yet  as  a  result  of  those  remarkable  tests  under  the 


196  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

faithful  and  conscientious  work  of  that  committee  of  experts,  of  which; 
G.  W.  Rhodes,  master  of  motive  power  of  the  Burlington  raih-oad,  was. 
chairman,  we  have  now  the  quick  acting  brake  brought  out  in  the  fall 
of  1887  by  Mr.  Westinghouse  which  gives  so  much  greater  safety  to 
every  passenger  by  rail.  As  already  intimated  it  matters  not  how  many 
firms  may  now  be  making  a  quick  acting  brake,  the  name  of  George 
Westinghouse  should  and  will  be  handed  down  by  historians  of  railroad 
safety  appliances  as  the  one  man  whose  wonderful  inventive  ability  has 
done  more  to  make  travel  by  steam  railroad  almost  absolutely  safe  than 
any  other  man  in  the  world. 

Right  here  it  may  be  in  place  to  analyze  briefly  the  "  why"  these 
amazingly  rapid  strides  in  all  that  not  only  pertains  to  safety  but  com- 
fort of  travel  on  our  railroad  trains;  and  also  to  ask  the  question,  is 
there  need  of  any  compulsory  legislation  to  enhance  still  more  the  safety 
of  travel  on  passenger  trains.  I  am  very  frank  to  say  that  I  have 
always  felt  that  this  whole  matter  would  take  care  of  itself.  There 
never  has  been  and  in  my  judgfment  there  never  will  be  any  urgent 
need  of  legislation  upon  this  particular  subject,  viz.:  Safety  to  passen- 
gers. Why  ?  Simply  because  the  great  law  of  competition  will  take. 
care  of  this  better  than  any  legislation,  state  or  national. 

Let  one  road  abolish  the  stove  as  a  means  of  heating  its  cars  and  pub- 
lish that  fact,  and  its  competitors  and  parallel  neighbors  must  do  so  too 
or  see  its  customers  going  to  the  safer  heated  cars.  The  same  is  also 
true  of  lighting  methods.  Let  one  road  advertise  that  "  its  cars  are 
lighted  with  gas  and  absolutely  safe,"  while  its  competitors  use  other- 
and  less  safe  means,  and  the  fear  of  being  in  a  burning  wreck  set  on 
fire  by  unsafe  lamps  will  drive  to  the  cars  with  the  safer  light. 

There  never  has,  I  repeat,  there  never  will  be  in  my  judgment  any 
great  necessity  for  laws  requiring  safety  appliances  on  passenger  cars 
and  trains.  So  great  is  the  strife  to  secure  passenger  traffic  as  a  mere 
advertising  method  that  it  is  cheaper  by  all  odds  to  use  at  all  times  the 
best  known  practical  safety  appliances.  And  with  what  a  miracle  of 
superb  excellences  and  luxurious  comfort  and  with  all  known  appli- 
ances that  will  add  one  iota  of  greater  safety  are  our  passenger  cars 
now  perfected  !  The  enterprise  of  all  our  roads  of  any  considerable, 
importance  shown  in  this  direction  is  worthy  of  all  praise.  No  general 
manager  or  president  has  to  beg  long  for  necessary  funds  from  the 
board  of  directors  for  this  purpose.  Today  America  stands  far  ahead 
of  all  the  rest  of  the  world  in  her  appointments  for  comfortable,  lux- 
urious, rapid,  cheap  and  safe  passenger  traffic  ;  and  competition  will 
take  good  care  that  neither  of  these  conditions  will  ever  be  lowered. 

If  ever  the  aid  of  the  law-making  power  should  be  invoked  to  regu- 
late any  thing  in  regard  to  passenger  traffic  we  need  not  be  surprised 
to  see  it  used  to  restrict  speed  and  competition.  We  may  yet  find  it 
necessary  to  control  competition  by  law  as  a  matter  of  safety  appliances^ 
both  to  distant  and  innocent  stockholders  of  railroad  property  and  also 
as  a  means  of  safety  to  the  traveling  public.  There  is  a  growing  mania 
for  fast  trains  as  an  advertising  scheme,  yet  who  of  the  wisest  in  rail- 
road lore  is  yet  ready  to  say  where  the  limits  of  speed  and  the  greatest 
reasonable  safety  meet?  All  along  the  history  of  railroading  the 
impossible  of  today  has  been  the  practical  of  the  tomorrow. 

But   I   am  aware   that   I  was   honored   with  a  request  to  prepare  a. 


APPLIANCES  FOR  SAFETY  OF  EMPLOYES.  197 

paper  upon  safety  appliances  to  be  read  here  because  of  my  supposed 
interest  in  this  matter  as  connected  with  employes  in  the  freight  train 
service. 

A  wide  field  opens  out  before  us  as  we  enter  upon  the  discussion  of 
this  part  of  the  subject.  We  are  to  meet  with  facts  here  that  should  be 
dealt  with  frankly,  candidly  and  yet  in  plain  unvarnished  truth  and 
justice.  It  is  reported  that  there  are  now  something  like  800,000  to 
1,000,000  men  and  women  employed  by  the  railways  of  this  nation  ;  of 
these  say  250,000  men  are  employed  in  train  and  yard  service.  The 
reports  of  the  state  railroad  commissioners,  in  the  states  where  the  law 
creates  such  officers,  and  the  reports  of  the  interstate  commerce  com- 
mission, show  that  out  of  this  250,000  not  less  than  25,000  meet  the 
casualties  yearly — many  fatal ;  more  making  them  cripples  for  life,  and 
still  more  suffering  painful  injuries  which  allow  of  partial  recovery  so 
that  the  victim  returns  again  to  work.  Neither  of  these  sources  give 
JUS  all  the  exact  facts.  Some  states  do  not  have  any  state  commission 
Board,  and  purely  state  roads  are  under  no  la^  by  which  they  are 
required  to  report  to  the  interstate  commerce  commission.  Hence  we 
<can  readily  see  we  do  not  get  from  these  sources  reports  of  all  casual- 
ties to  employes.  The  National  Association  of  Railway  Surgeons  at 
their  annual  convention  last  year  at  Old  Point  Comfort  in  Virginia, 
.made,  I  am  told,  the  astounding  report  that  the  preceding  year  furn- 
ished over  31,000  subjects  for  their  investigation  and  skillful  aid.  This 
is  simply  horrible  and  challenges  credence,  for  it  means  that  over  one  in 
vevery  eight  employes  in  handling  cars  and  trains  in  this  country  must 
-be  either  killed  or  more  or  less  mained  every  twelve  months. 

As  a  rule  railway  surgeons  never  treat  all  that  are  badly  hurt, 
thousands  of  others  get  slight  injuries  that  never  come  to  the  surgeon. 
There  is  at  present  no  way  by  which  we  can  get  reports  that  will  give 
all,  but  in  the  name  of  humanity  is  not  31,000  enough  for  one  short 
year?  Who  can  realize  all  that  that  means?  Something  like  3,000  are 
killed  outright.  These,  too,  are  all  strong,  ablebodied  men,  right  in 
the  flush  of  manhood.  From  my  own  investigations,  which  need  not  here 
.be  detailed,  I  can  with  great  confidence  say  that  at  the  very  least  fully 
50  per  cent  of  this  large  number  are  killed  or  injured  from  two  causes 
•alone,  viz.:  the  continued  use  of  old  style  hand  couplers,  and  the  hand 
brake. 

Before  this  audience  I  need  not  dwell  on  the  terrible  facts  here 
brought  out,  I  will  merely  ask  you  to  estimate  for  yourselves,  this  :  If 
last  year  the  old  link  and  pin  draw  bar,  and  the  hand  brake  called  for 
ithe  lives,  limbs  or  untold  sufferings  of  15,000  of  these  hardy  and  faith- 
iul  railroad  employes,  how  many  lives,  how  many  limbs  and  how  much 
pain  and  anguish  have  been  offered  up  on  this  altar  of — what  shall  I 
■call  it? — since  the  first  freight  train  rolled  over  the  rails  in  America? 
None  of  us  can  answer  this.  Can  any  one  of  us  answer  why  this  has 
been  suffered  to  go  on,  year  after  year,  and  this  horrible  sacrifice  of  life 
has  been  kept  up?  W^hy  has  the  crowning  achievement  of  this  century, 
this  unparalleled  perfection  of  railroad  transportation,  been  bought  at 
so  dear  a  price?  Why  has  it  been  allowed  that  every  mile  of  rail  laid 
in  America  has  been  bathed  in  the  blood  of  the  faithful  employe? 

Now  dare  I  trust  myself  to  go  on  and  in  this  presence  say  just  how 
•this  matter  stands  in  my  mind  and  I,  an  average  of  the  common  lay- 


19^  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

man,  show  how  it  appears  to  us  the  common  people  ?  Will  my  motive 
be  understood  and  appreciated  ?  My  only  desire  in  presenting  this 
paper  is  to  do  some  good,  to  help  on  and  accelerate  the  grand  work 
now  being  done  by  all  the  more  progressive  roads  in  fitting  their  cars 
with  automatic  couplers  and  power  brakes.  Please  accept  what  I  say 
in  the  spirit  in  which  I  give  it.  This  congress  is  an  epoch  in  the  rail- 
road history  of  America  ;  papers  read  here  are  not  merely  for  today. 

The  terrible  record  confronts  us.  Somewhere  responsibility  rests. 
Are  these  employes  to  be  blamed  for  being  killed,  crippled  and  injured  ? 
If  not,  who  is  ?  Is  any  one  ?  None  of  us  are  willing  to  say  no  to  this. 
Corporate  bodies  scatter  and  so  thin  out  responsibility  that  individual 
responsibility  becomes  nearly  lost ;  still  there  must  be  somewhere  a  fault 
and  responsibility.  Will  it  do  to  lay  it  to  a  lack  of  inventive  and 
mechanical  skill  ?  I  think  not.  These  have  been  active  and  effective 
to  make  passenger  travel  almost  miraculously  safe.  Why  ?  Is  it  not 
because  in  addition  to  competition  the  courts  have  held  the  roads 
responsible  for  the  safety  of  the  passengers  ?  You  all  see  at  once  I 
mean  a  great  deal  by  this. 

Has  the  making  of  one  ruling  for  the  passenger  and  another  for  the 
employe  been  a  safety  appliance  for  the  latter  ?  I  am  not  here  to  give 
a  tirade  against  the  courts.  I  honor  learning,  wisdom  and  ability  ;  but 
will  it  be  out  of  place  for  me  to  modestly  suggest  that  today,  under  the 
greatly  changed  condition  of  affairs  brought  in  with  the  advent  of  the 
locomotive,  the  rulings  of  the  court  founded  on  the  relations  of  master 
to  servant,  of  servant  to  fellow  servant  and  co-laborer  two  hundred  years 
ago  are  scarcely  sufficient  to  meet  the  changed  conditions  of  today  ? 

Pardon  me  a  moment  while  I  attempt  to  analyze  for  illustration. 
Here  is  an  intended  passenger.  It  is  not  absolutely  necessary  that  he 
should  take  the  train.  He  knows  that  accidents  do  happen  to  trains. 
He  knows  that  the  dispatcher  in  yonder  office  may  make  a  mistake  and 
send  his  train  crashing  into  another.  He  knows  all  this,  but  still  he 
takes  the  train,  but  does  the  court  hold  him  as  contributing  to  the  results 
of  the  collision  that  costs  him  his  life  ?  Does  it  hold  that  he  assumed 
the  risk  and  therefore  cannot  recover  ?  On  the  other  hand  here  is  a 
green,  simple  boy  infatuated  with  a  desire  to  be  a  train  man.  You  and 
I  and  all  the  great  public  and  the  court  judges  even,  want  him,  green 
as  he  is,  to  become  a  railroad  employe  because  somebody  must  run  the 
train.  We  want  to  ride,  we  want  to  send  and  receive  our  goods.  It  is 
absolutely  necessary  that  this  boy,  unsophisticated  and  rustic  as  he  is, 
having  hardly  the  slightest  idea  of  what  railroading  is,  knowing  nothing 
really  of  its  perils  but  desiring  to  follow  this  as  his  life  work  shall  go, 
and  in  so  doing  be  a  great  benefit  to  us,  to  stockholders  and  to  all. 
He  goes,  and  in  attempting  to  couple  the  first  car  perhaps  is  killed. 
Parents  seek  to  recover  something,  but  the  judge  whose  library  was  in 
the  car  that  killed  the  boy  decides  that  as  the  boy  was  supposed  to  know 
all  the  dangers  of  railroading  he  assumed  the  risks  and  by  trying  to  do 
what  we  all  wanted  him  to  do ;  what  the  judge  wanted  him  to  do  so  he 
could  get  his  package  of  law  books ;  doing  what  the  poor  boy  was  in  a 
sense  compelled  to  do  to  earn  his  bread  ;  doing  his  part  in  carrying  on 
that  which  is  now  become  a  necessity  of  our  civilization,  because  he  did 
this  he  contributed  by  his  own  negligence  to  his  death  and  therefore 
cannot  recover. 


APPLIANCES  FOR  SAFETY  OF  EMPLOYES.  199 

What,  we  common  people  ask,  are  our  laws  and  our  courts  for?  Are 
they  for  the  strong  or  for  the  weak  ?  But  let  me  be  fully  understood 
here.  I  grant  I  am  in  earnest  and  using  plain  English.  Is  it  that  I 
would  mulct  the  roads  in  large  sums  to  enrich  the  employe  or  his  fam- 
ily. No !  No  !  Not  at  all  I  That  is  not  it  at  all.  I  am  a  friend  to 
the  railroads.  I  have  nothing  in  common  with  this  senseless  howl  of 
the  demagogues  against  corporations  and  roads.  While  a  life-long 
farmer  I  realize  that  the  prosperity  of  the  roads  is  the  result  of  my  pros- 
perity. The  best  interest  of  the  roads  and  the  highest  prosperity  of  the 
communities  they  serve  are  one  and  the  same.  There  is  a  community 
of  interests  so  patent  that  the  blind  should  see  it. 

It  is  because  I  am  a  friend  to  the  roads  that  I  deal  in  plain  words. 
Let  the  courts  hold  the  roads  to  as  rigid  responsibility  for  the  life  of  the 
employ^  as  for  the  passenger  and  it  would  be  the  most  effectual  safety 
appliance  possible.  It  would  then  be  only  a  question  of  short  time  when 
every  car  would  be  equipped  with  automatic  couplers  and  every  train 
with  power  brakes.  Then  this  dark,  foul  blot  on  this  otherwise  grandest 
achievement  of  this  nineteenth  century  would  be  washed  away. 

Take  another  case. 

The  company  for  some  reason  good  to  itself  employs  a  dispatcher. 
He  proves  incompetent ;  he  gets  drunk  ;  in  his  maudlin  stupidity  he 
sends  two  trains  together  and  lives  of  train  men  are  sacrificed  and  others 
are  crippled  for  life.  "  Can't  recover  because  it  was  caused  by  negli- 
gence of  a  co-employe."  Did  the  dead  men  have  any  voice  in  employ- 
ing the  incompetent  dispatcher  ? 

In  the  same  collision  passengers  are  injured.  The  courts  allow 
them  heavy  damages,  but  the  faithful  engineer  who,  when  he  saw  the 
crash  inevitable,  still  stood  by  his  throttle  and  lever  in  faithful,  heroic 
but  vain  attempts  because  of  lack  of  power  brakes  to  save  his  train  and 
died  in  the  effort,  leaves  a  beggared  wife  who  cannot  recover,  so  says  the 
court ;  but  the  wife  of  the  passenger  killed  gets  ten  thousand  dollars  at 
the  hand  of  the  same  judge. 

Such  rulings  as  these  of  our  courts  do  not  hasten  the  putting  of  proper 
safety  appliances  on  our  freight  trains,  but  they  turn  our  passenger 
trains  into  museums  of  safety  appliances. 

But  neither  the  corporations  nor  the  courts  must  shoulder  all  the 
responsibility,  and  this  paper  would  fail  of  its  purpose  if  it  stopped  here. 

The  great  general  public  who  are  reaping  the  inestimable  advantage 
of  rail  transportation  have  not  only  stood  silently  by  "  holding  the 
clothes  "  of  those  most  active  in  the  immediate  responsibility  but  have 
virtually  urged  on  this  inhuman  work.  How  ?  By  this  extreme  and 
unreasoning  prejudice  against  railroads,  resulting  in  laws  that  cripple 
them  as  to  resources  so  that  it  becomes  extremely  difficult  to  devise 
ways  and  means  by  which  safety  appliances  can  be  secured  to  equip 
the  freight  cars  of  this  nation  with  automatic  couplers  and  power  brakes 
which  would  cost  not  less  than  $75,000,000. 

The  public  should  cease  its  clamor  for  cheap  rates  and  for  laws  reg- 
ulating rates  until  the  roads  had  first  made  railway  work  as  safe  as 
possible  for  their  men.  Allow  the  roads  to  charge  reasonable  rates  and 
then  hold  them  to  a  strict  responsibility  for  the  lives  and  persons  of  their 
employes. 

It  may  be  asked  by  some  why  this  kind  of  talk  now  that  a  national 


2  00  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

law  is  in  power  requiring  safety  appliances  on  freight  cars.  Because 
it  is  one  thing  to  have  a  law  and  another  thing  to  have  a  public  senti- 
ment to  back  up  and  execute  that  law.  But  this  paper  would  be  far 
from  accomplishing  its  purpose  if  it  did  not,  to  the  best  of  its  ability, 
attempt  to  give  praise  to  whom  vast  amount  of  praise  is  due.  The 
world  will  never  know  how  much  we  are  indebted  for  the  wonderful 
immunity  we  have  from  accidents  in  railway  travel  and  traffic  to  the 
untiring  and  most  intelligent  and  faithful  work  of  the  technical  depart- 
ments of  our  railroad  companies. 

It  has  been  the  speaker's  high  privilege  for  the  last  six  or  eight 
years  to  be  allowed  to  meet  many  of  these  officials  in  their  national  con- 
vention, more  especially  with  what  are  known  as  the  National  Master 
Car  Builders  and  Master  Mechanics  associations.  These  associations 
represent  from  qo  to  95  per  cent,  of  all  cars  of  the  continent.  The 
members  of  these  associations  are  men  of  thoroughly  trained  minds  and 
of  great  practical  knowledge.  To  the  annual  conventions  of  these  asso- 
ciations members  come  from  nearly  every  road  in  the  states  and  Can- 
ada. At  these  conventions  everything  that  goes  to  the  make-up 
of  the  best  possible  locomotive,  passenger  and  freight  car  is  discussed 
from  a  practical  standpoint. 

It  is  with  these  men  where  the  groundwork  foundation  of  the  won- 
derful safety  for  railroad  travel  is  laid.  Aside  from  the  annual  meet- 
ings each  considerable  locality  has  its  local  club  of  these  men  where 
they  meet  either  once  a  month  or  once  in  two  weeks,  when  able  papers 
are  read  or  discussed  relative  to  all  these  matters  of  car  building  and 
the  greatest  possible  safety  combined  with  consistent^  economy.  These 
men  blow  no  trumpets,  they  do  no  posing  before  the  public,  but  quietly 
in  the  great  railroad  shops  and  in  the  laboratories  of  the  great  railroad 
systems  they  are  working  out  the  problems  of  economical  and  safe  rail- 
road transportation. 

These  men  have  evolved  uniform  standards  for  almost  everything 
that  enters  into  the  make-up  of  cars.  Probably  no  one  thing  in  all  these 
investigations,  tests  and  experiments  has  received  such  close,  faithful 
and  impartial  study  and  long,  earnest  interchange  of  views  as  this  of  a 
uniform  safe  coupler  and  a  power  brake  for  freight  cars. 

After  years  of  patient  work  the  committee  on  automatic  couplers 
made  their  final  report  to  the  national  convention  held  in  Minneapolis 
in  June,  1887.  The  committee  reported  in  favor  of  the  vertical  plane 
hook  type  as  a  standard  form  of  coupler,  and  the  convention  by  a  two- 
thirds  vote  adopted  this  report,  which  was  afterwards  confirmed  by  a 
letter  ballot  of  an  over  two-thirds  vote  of  all  the  roads  represented  in 
that  association,  which  was  not  less  than  90  per  cent,  of  all  the  roads  in 
the  nation.  This  form  of  car  coupler  or  drawbar  has  grown  more  and 
more  in  favor  with  the  roads  until  now  the  great  American  Railway 
association,  including  in  its  membership  about  75  per  cent,  of  all  miles 
of  railroad  of  the  nation,  is  practically  a  unit  in  favor  of  this  form  of 
drawbar  as  the  standard  automatic  coupler  for  all  the  freight  cars  of 
America. 

One  of  the  defects  of  the  recent  congressional  legislature  upon  this 
subject  of  safety  appliances  is  that  it  does  not  recognize  and  legalize 
this  meritorious  work  of  these  eminently  practical  mechanics,  the  mas- 
ter car  builders,  in  so  many  words.     But  so  many  of  the  leading  roads 


APPLIANCES  FOR  SAFETY  OF  EMPLOYES.  20l 

having  adopted  this  form  of  coupler  as  "standard"  the  strong  though 
unwritten  law  of  interchange  among  railways  will  have  the  same  result 
as  though  legalized  by  congress. 

It  is  intensely  gratifying  to  note  the  grand  work  now  being  done  by 
the  leading  roads  in  equipping  their  cars  with  the  M.  C.  B.  type  of 
safety  couplers.  It  is  unfortunate  that  there  are  so  many  varieties  of 
this  type  being  put  onto  cars.  If  our  coupler  makers  could  only  pool 
their  issues  and  have  but  absolutely  one  make  of  this  type,  as  was 
nearly  the  case  for  years  with  the  Miller  hook  and  platform  on  passen- 
ger cars,  so  that  every  car  would  be  fitted  up  with  this  one  make  and 
the  unlocking  device  the  same  on  every  car  it  would  then  seem  that  car 
coupling  work  would  be  rendered  as  safe  as  we  could  reasonably  ask 
for  it  to  be.  Would  it  not  be  wise  to  seek  to  amend  the  present  law  to 
this  effect  ? 

Indeed  it  might  well  be  remarked  here  that  had  all  the  roads  evinced 
such  enterprise  in  this  matter  of  safety  couplers  and  brakes  as  certain 
progressive  roads  that  could  be  mentioned  there  would  have  been  no 
need  of  the  law.  The  law  was  and  is  a  necessity  to  spur  on  the  lag- 
gard roads. 

POWER    BRAKES    ON    FREIGHT    CARS. 

Fearful  and  dangerous  as  the  work  of  car  coupling  is  and  almost 
incredible  the  long  lists  of  fatalities  and  injuries  arising  therefrom,  still 
the  2iQXw2\  fatalities  are  greater  in  number  from  the  continued  use  of  the 
old  hand  brake  on  freight  cars  than  from  any  other  one  cause. 

When  one  comes  to  really  get  right  down  to  a  contemplation  of  the 
actual  facts  of  the  exposure  and  risk  incurred  by  a  freight  brakeman  no 
man  who  has  left  in  him  one  spark  of  real  humane  manhood  can  for  a 
moment  be  reconciled  to  the  conditions  that  confront  him.  The  future 
historian  of  railroading  in  America  will  find  it  hard  to  make  posterity 
believe  that  human  beings  were  required  to  ride  the  decks  of  our  freight 
cars  facing  the  biting  blasts  of  winter,  with  the  mercury  down  to  20  to 
30  below  zero  ;  compelled  to  run  from  top  of  one  car  to  another  ;  the 
black  smoke  and  steam  from  the  engine  blinding  him  as  it  rolls  back 
over  the  train  in  dense  volumes  so  that  he  cannot  see  the  deadly  chasm 
between  the  ends  of  the  rolling,  swinging,  jerking  cars  covered  with 
sleet  and  snow  and  rushing  against  a  winter  gale  of  30  miles  an  hour  at 
the  rate  of  25  miles  —  made  I  say  to  ride  these  cars  under  such  condi- 
tions which  are  every  day  occurrences  in  our  winter  months,  and  what 
for  ?  Why  to  interpose  his  puny  strength  between  that  ponderous  train 
and  its  momentum  and  a  danger  ahead,  sure  to  be  met  unless  he  can 
by  the  old  handbrake  stop  the  train  which  on  such  a  night  and  down 
that  grade  is  about  like  the  fabulous  fly  upon  the  bull's  horn. 

Now  is  there  a  man  of  us  here  today  that  would  do  the  work  of  a 
brakeman  one  winter's  night  for  all  the  railroads  on  the  continent  ?  No 
not  one.  Still  tens  of  thousands  of  our  fellow  men,  bone  of  our  bone, 
flesh  of  our  flesh,  are  doing  just  this  kind  of  work  year  in  and  year  out, 
right  here  in  christian  America.  And  when  in  one  of  these  black,  cold, 
stormy  nights,  with  the  wind  howling  a  hurricane,  decks  covered  with 
ice,  his  glimmer  of  a  lantern  blown  out,  yet  true  to  his  trust  he  pushes 
on  to  reach  the  brakes,  he  slips  and  drops  between  the  cars  and  is 
ground  into  an  unrecognizable  mass  under  cold,  cruel  iron,  his  mother 


202  WORLD'S  RAILIVAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

when  seeking  some  recompense  for  the  idol  of  her  heart  and  her  only 
support  is  told  by  him  who  is  appointed  to  hold  the  scales  of  exact  jus- 
tice, "Yon  can't  recover;"  "Your  son  assumed  all  the  hazards  of  the 
work." 

It  does  seem  to  a  common  man  that  such  ruling  is  not  a  safety  ap- 
pliance when  at  the  same  time  it  is  a  matter  of  common  intelligence 
that  down  that  same  grade  on  just  such  a  night  a  train  of  50  cars  can 
be  hurled  at  the  rate  of  40  miles  an  hour  and  in  case  of  necessity  can 
be  brought  to  a  standstill  by  the  modern,  quick  acting  power  brake 
inside  of  500  feet,  and  not  a  trainman  need  to  leave  the  caboose,  all  being 
done  by  a  simple  turn  of  the  wrist  of  the  engineer  in  his  cab.  Under 
just  such  conditions  as  described  thousands  of  our  strong  young  men 
have  met  their  tragic  death  and  still  the  work  goes  on  ;  but  now  thank 
God  in  a  decreasing  rate. 

It  may  very  pertinently  be.  asked  why,  if  power  brakes  are  practical 
for  freight  cars,  do  not  managers  put  them  on  ?  Managers  do  not  have 
always  the  say  about  such  things.  Brakes  and  couplers  cost  money. 
Money  of  a  railway  company  cannot  be  used  in  large  quantities  for 
such  purposes,  except  as  appropriated  by  vote  of  directors,  any  more 
than  public  funds  can  be  used  to  build  postoffices  only  as  appropriated 
by  Congress.  These  boards  of  directors  have  stockholders  behind  them, 
of  these  many  of  them  are  absentees,  and  they  not  fully  understanding 
the  necessit}^  will  not  readily  listen  to  calls  for  money  for  improve- 
ments. 

While  the  operating  departments  now  recognize  the  fact  that  power 
brakes  and  automatic  couplers  are  not  only  good  and  necessary  for 
safety  to  trainmen,  but  are  actually  economic  appliances,  while  they  know 
that  from  12  to  20  per  cent  of  the  cars  of  a  train  flitted  up  with  train 
brakes  and  so  located  as  to  be  used,  enable  the  engineer  to  make  much 
better  time  and  give  him  a  more  complete  control  of  his  train  than  the 
assistance  of  any  three  brakemen  could  possibly  give,  yet  these  men 
are  powerless  unless  the  money  is  regularly  appropriated  for  this  pur- 
pose. The  object  of  the  present  national  law  is  to  reinforce  managers 
and  other  officials  when  they  ask  for  means  to  put  on  these  safety 
appliances.  Now  they  can  say,  "  thus  saith  the  law,"  and  the  money 
must  come. 

In  the  face  of  facts  now  so  patent,  it  does  seem  that  the  rulings  of 
the  courts  should  be  more  or  less  moulded  to  meet  the  present  condi- 
tions. 

Automatic  standard  couplers  have  been  adopted  by  the  railroads 
themselves,  on  their  own  motion  by  practically  a  unanimous  letter 
ballot  vote  after  ninety  days  consideration  upon  the  action  of  their  own 
officials,  viz.:  the  master  car  builders.  The  standard  height  of  draw 
bars  has  also  been  in  the  same  way  established.  It  is  also  now  estab- 
lished as  a  conceded  fact  that  the  air  brake  is  practically  applicable  to 
freight  train  service,  whereby  the  engineer  has  far  better  control  of  his 
train  than  can  be  given  him  by  a  half  a  dozen  brakemen,  hence  reliev- 
ing the  latter  of  the  great  risk  and  exposure  formerly  met. 

Aside  from  these  safety  appliances  there  are  others  that  could  be 
profitably  mentioned,  but  I  have  already  exceeded  my  time  and 
exhausted  your  patience. 

The  cultivating  of  good  will  between  officials  and  men,  the  attempt 


PROTECTION  AND  IMPROVEMENT  OF  EMTIO  YES.       203 

at  profit  sharing  so  commendably  undertaken  by  the  Illinois  Central 
company,  and  above  all  this  wonderful  movement  among  the  men 
themselves  in  the  interest  of  total  abstinence  from  all  that  intoxicates, 
whether  when  on  duty  or  off,  as  witnessed  by  the  remarkable  fact  that 
in  one  short  year  from  its  inception  nearly  100,000  practical  railroad 
men  have  put  on  the  white  R.  R  T.  A.  button  of  total  abstinence  from 
all  that  befuddles  the  brain,  is  one  of  the  grandest  movements  on  the 
road  of  safety  appliances  ever  undertaken  by  railroad  men,  and  when 
we  can  see  all  the  officials  also  wearing  this  white  button  in  good  faith 
for  the  encouragement  and  help  for  the  men  we  may  then  say  the  day 
is  dawning  when  the  record  of  railroad  accidents  shall  be  few  and  far 
between. 

One  word  more  and  I  am  done. 

Overwork,  not  allowed  proper  time  for  rest,  is  certainly  not  a  safety 
appliance.  Crank  as  I  may  be  called  because  of  my  views  and  words 
on  safety  appliances,  yet  I  will  venture  the  assertion  that  when  men 
have  regular  hours  of  rest,  have  their  one  day  of  rest  in  seven,  we  shall 
find  that  they  rise  up  from  mere  machine-like  things,  with  a  "  don't  care 
a  damn"  way  of  acting,  to  that  of  a  thinking,  reasonable  man  with  an 
interest  in  his  work  and  regard  for  the  rights  of  property.  Sunday  rest 
as  far  as  possible  and  practical  in  the  exigencies  of  the  movement  of 
the  commerce  of  a  great  nation,  will  in  my  judgment  be  a  very  impor- 
tant factor  of  safety  appliances. 


RAILWAY  EMPLOYES:  WHAT  SHALL  BE  DONE  FOR  THEIR 
PROTECTION  AND   IMPROVEMENT. 


K,    H.    WADE,    GENERAL     MANAGER     SOUTHERN     CALIFORNIA    RY.,    LOS 

ANGELES,    CAL. 


It  is  a  common  saying,  and  probably  a  true  one,  that  history  repeats 
itself.  Nations  rise  and  fall ;  the  highest  degree  of  civilization  has  been 
followed  by  ruin  and  decay.  Looking  backward  over  the  centuries 
which  have  passed,  and  judging  from  the  various  conditions  and  qualities 
of  men  it  would  seem  that  we  were  indeed  fortunate  in  being  permitted 
to  live  in  this  the  nineteenth  century,  and  to  enjoy  and  participate  in 
the  celebration  of  this  great  anniversary  of  the  creation  and  inception 
of  the  grandest  government  which  in  our  opinion  ever  existed  upon 
this  earth. 

One  of  the  most  important  factors  in  modern  civilization  has  been 
improved  transportation  for  the  people  and  products  and  rapid  means 
of  communication  between  distant  points,  as  the  result  of  development 
and  improvement  in  the  use  of  steam  and  electricity.  The  railways  of 
the  world  have  made  a  complete  transformation,  have  changed  all  the 
conditions  of  trade,  all  political  combinations  between  states  or  empires, 
and  will  undoubtedly  continue  during  all  time  to  be  one  of  the  most 
important  factors  in  the  progress  and  growth  of  all  countries. 


204  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

In  the  development  of  these  enterprises  there  has  grown  up  an  army 
of  skilled  and  efficient  people  who  have  probably  been  more  perfectly 
educated  and  drilled  in  their  duties  than  any  other  class  of  men,  and 
who,  by  reason  of  the  requirements  they  are  called  upon  to  fulfill  and 
the  privileges  they  enjoy,  have  in  turn  become  better  acquainted  with 
all  the  conditions  and  circumstances  of  life  than  they  could  through  any 
other  channel  or  by  any  system  of  education.  The  rapid  development 
of  these  undertakings  and  the  many  schemers  who  have  launched  such 
enterprises  merely  for  the  profit  in  construction  and  the  marketing  of 
securities,  have  in  too  many  cases  made  the  operation  of  such  properties 
obnoxious,  unwise  and  uncomfortable.  Where  intelligent  men  have 
created  railway  lines  with  legitimate  prospects,  as  a  rule  the  employes 
have  found  permanent  homes  and  pleasant  situations.  The  discipline 
and  requirements  on  such  lines  are  usually  more  strict  than  on  wild-cat 
roads,  but  the  feeling  of  security,  permanence  and  pride  which  naturally 
comes  from  serving  such  a  company  generally  make  the  positions  more 
agreeable. 

The  question  of  the  hour  seems  to  be — What  shall  be  done  to  create 
and  maintain  the  best  possible  relation  between  employer  and  employe  ? 
What  course  shall  be  pursued  to  establish  that  confidence  which  should 
-and  must  exist  if  the  best  results  are  to  be  obtained  ;  what  course  will 
produce  in  the  highest  degree  the  lasting  good  of  the  employes  in  each 
and  every  department  where  they  may  have  cast  their  lot,  and  where  in  all 
probability  they  must  expect  to  serve  during  all  their  lives.  In  the  early 
history  of  railway  traffic,  when  all  things  were  new  and  crude,  strong 
friendships  and  personal  attractions  bound  together  the  officers  and  em- 
ployes in  their  enterprise  like  the  members  of  a  family,  each  ^avin^  an 
absolute  independence  and  still  a  common  interest  in  the  general  result. 
In  later  years  the  spirit  of  combination  seems  to  have  entered  all  walks 
of  life.  Trusts  have  absorbed  and  monopolized  all  the  leading  lines  of 
trade,  and  combinations  of  labor  in  every  department  have  grown  up  as 
an  offset,  with  the  same  view,  i.  e.,  self  protection.  The  danger  to  the 
commercial  world  of  such  combinations  has  already  resulted  in  very 
arbitrary,  stringent  laws,  which  will  undoubtedly  be  enforced,  prevent- 
ing such  monopolies  from  existing.  The  danger  to  the  laboring  world, 
while  not  exactly  in  the  same  line,  is  no  less  real  and  in  need  of  correc- 
tion, and  the  intelligent  citizen  should  do  what  he  can  at  all  times  to 
perpetuate  and  promulgate  the  principles  of  liberty  under  which  our 
great  country  has  grown  up  and  developed.  True  manhood  can  never 
be  maintained  or  fully  developed  unless  the  personal  independence  and 
individuality  of  each  man  are  clearly  sustained.  Personal  pride,  respect 
for  one's  self,  for  family,  friends,  or  those  under  whose  directions  the 
person  is  employed,  is  as  necessary  for  full  development  and  growth  of 
character  as  is  his  daily  food  for  the  development  of  his  physical  body. 
This,  however,  must  be  considered  in  connection  with  discipline  and  daily 
results  of  allotted  tasks.  No  enterprise  can  succeed  without  a  central 
head  whose  direct  management  shall  be  practically  arbitrary  and  final. 
W^hen  combinations  of  employes  assume  to  dictate  and  regulate  the 
operations  of  companies,  or  employers,  as  they  have  in  many  instances 
in  the  past,  the  result  is  demoralization  and  destruction  of  independence. 
The  individuality  of  each  member  is  lost,  and  he  becomes  nothing  more 
than  a  number,  like   a  car  or  a  locomotive,  and  unlike   them  is  not 


PRO  TECTION  AND  IMPRO  VEMENT  OF  EMPL O  YES.      205 

gauged  according  to  his  capacity  or  power  for  performing  service.  He 
puts  himself  upon  a  plane  of  equality  with  every  other  individual  in  such 
combination,  he  loses  all  incentive  for  improvement  or  advancement  in 
his  particular  line,  and  really  ceases  to  have  an  individual  existence. 
As  between  employer  and  employe  intelligent  cooperation,  a  mutual 
interest  in  the  success  of  the  business  or  enterprise,  an  honest  recogni- 
tion of  individual  effort  and  ability,  all  indicate  civilization  ;  while  dis- 
regard of  law,  order  and  discipline,  or  reliance  upon  brute  force,  boy- 
cotts and  strikes,  are  relics  of  barbarism.  Ballots  not  bullets,  should  be 
the  motto  in  this  "  Land  of  the  brave  and  horne  of  the  free." 

All  thinking  men  look  with  contempt  upon  the  voter  who  blindly 
follows  the  party  lash  and  casts  his  ballot  for  dishonor  or  disgrace.. 
Personal  independence  does  not  prohibit  mutual  aid  and  organized  pro- 
tection, but  does  induce  healthy  self  government  control  and  develop- 
ment. Unity  of  principle  need  not  destroy  individuality.  The  remedy  for 
such  unfortunate  conditions  is  undoubtedly  much  like  that  which  is 
required  in  commercial  circles.  The  great  desideratum  at  the  present 
day  is  confidence — confidence  in  the  purposes  and  practices  of  both 
parties  ;  disposition  to  concede,  to  consult,  to  cooperate.  All  products 
of  the  earth  are  subject  to  fluctuations  in  value.  Different  parties 
successively  secure  and  control  and  increase  or  decrease  such  values  as- 
the  case  may  be.  Combinations  of  labor  as  against  capital  have  here- 
tofore, and  will  undoubtedly  in  the  future  from  time  to  time,  temporar- 
ily regulate  the  value  of  labor  as  well  as  other  commodities.  The 
ability  of  employers  to  maintain  and  at  all  times  meet  the  demands  of 
labor  is  very  uncertain  and  will  in  all  probability  m  the  future  be  inade- 
quate. The  farmer  who  produces  grain  and  other  products  of  the  soil 
which  result  in  increased  value  to  the  communities  of  the  world,  must 
accept  for  these  products  whatever  the  market  price  affords,  and  never 
in  the  history  of  the  country  have  they  really  been  so  cheap  as  at  the 
present  time  ;  while  on  the  other  hand,  the  compensation  for  labor  has 
never  been  so  high,  and  naturally  the  great  army  of  railway  employes, 
if  they  could  but  thoroughly  realize  the  situation,  so  far  as  salary  is 
concerned,  are  better  situated  than  any  other  laboring  class  of  people 
on  the  globe. 

Next  to  confidence  comes  contentment,  and  much  may  be  done  by 
each  individual  in  self  education  in  reaching  this  most  important  and 
desirable  condition.  We  are  all  creatures  of  habit,  and  such  habits 
grow  or  develop  very  rapidly  in  the  direction  in  which  we  lead  them. 

Improved  conditions  in  life  are  largely  the  result  of  personal,  indi- 
vidual effort;  each  person's  life  is  largely  what  its  possessor  makes  it. 
Systematic  cultivation  of  the  abilities,  mental  as  well  as  physical, 
developing  of  the  mind,  opening  up  of  dormant  resources  and  qualifi- 
cations, will  all  tend  to  improve  our  railway  people  as  well  as  those  pur- 
suing other  vocations.  Interest  should  also  be  maintained  in  social  and 
political  matters  ;  every  person  has  an  obligation  to  his  neighbor,  to  his 
state,  and  to  his  common  country.  This  responsibility  cannot  be  shifted, 
and  should  not  be  neglected.  Every  person  owes  a  duty  to  society  and 
the  community  in  which  he  lives,  and  should  do  his  full  share  to  pro- 
mote their  welfare.  The  exercise  of  the  franchise  and  taking  part  and 
interest  in  the  government  under  which  we  live  also  tend  to  produce 
better  citizens  and  consequently  a  better  state  of  affairs  for  all  laboring 


2o6  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

men.  They  are  enabled  to  improve  their  minds  and  conditions  by 
coming  in  contact  with  all  other  classes  of  labor  as  well  as  with  experi- 
enced men  from  other  walks  of  life,  and  by  such  contact  acquiring 
finish  and  culture  which  may  be  had  in  no  other  way.  Such  develop- 
ment and  education  must  inevitably  be  followed  by  self  protection  and 
improvement — protection  against  all  evils  resulting  from  bad  habits, 
bad  associates,  or  evil  disposed  superiors — and  rapid  advancement  in 
all  that  makes  life  desirable.  The  introduction  of  new  and  more  effect- 
ive machinery,  improved  state  of  the  permanent  way,  and  all  additional 
facilities  which  experience  will  bring,  aided  by  intelligent  cooperation 
of  the  rank  and  file  in  the  railway  service,  must  be  followed  by  greater 
development  and  improvement  in  the  condition  of  railway  employes  dur- 
ing the  next  generation  than  we  have  had  in  the  past.  By  the  ordinary 
exercise  of  our  will  power,  our  reasoning  intelligence,  we  may  educate 
ourselves  to  see  the  bright  side  of  every  cloud,  to  consider  the  many 
things  we  each  day  or  year  are  permitted  to  enjoy,  to  realize  how  much 
better  our  lot  is  than  that  of  many  of  our  neighbors.  And  above  all, 
let  us  at  this  time  consider  the  glorious  liberty  of  this  our  great  and 
beloved  country ;  let  us  feel  a  national  pride  in  this  great  Columbian 
Exposition ;  let  us  endeavor  by  some  word,  or  act  or  deed  to  contribute 
to  its  success  and  prosperity;  believing,  anticipating  that  no  such  aggre- 
gation of  beauty,  of  all  the  arts,  of  all  the  products  of  the  world,  has  or 
ever  will  again  during  the  present  generation,  be  gathered  in  one  place. 
May  we  all  feel  and  realize  that  this  is  a  great  school  for  the  education 
of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth. 


PROTECTION  AND  IMPROVEMENT  OF  RAILWAY  EMPLOYES. 


SAMUEL    R.     BARR,    SUPERINTENDENT     RELIEF     DEPARTMENT      BALTI- 
MORE   &    OHIO  RAILROAD  CO. 


In  considering  the  matter  of  protection  for  railway  employes,  the 
first  inquiry  naturally  presenting  itself  is,  "  What  are  the  specific  dan- 
gers to  which  they  are  exposed,  and  to  what  degree  and  how  can  they 
be  overcome  ?" 

Before  this  audience,  it  is  unnecessary  to  present  any  evidence  that 
the  occupations  of  the  majority  of  these  people  are  hazardous.  It  may 
be  safely  assumed  that  the  reports  of  the  interstate  commerce  commis-' 
sion  are  correct  m  stating  that  there  are,  approximately,  700,000  rail- 
way employes  in  the  United  States.  In  attempting  to  ascertain  defi- 
nitely the  whole  number  of  employes  killed  and  injured,  they  are  con- 
fronted with  the  fact  that  the  majority  of  railway  companies  do  not 
keep  an  accurate  record  from  which  this  data  can  be  obtained,  It  is 
known  that  about  the  only  record  they  have  is  the  personal  injury  reports 
on  file. 

Fortunately,  however,  for  the  purpose  of  this  article  a  record  has 
been  kept  and  published  for  some  years  past  by  at  least  five  of  the  great 


PROTECTION  AND  IMPROVEMENT  OF  EMPLOYES.      207 

lines,  from  which  we  learn  the  average  number  killed  and  injuted  on 
those  lines,  and  it  is  fair  to  assume  that  their  casualties  are  no  greater 
than  those  of  other  lines. 

From  this  source  it  is  found  that  taking  all  classes  of  labor  employed 
on  the  railways  of  the  United  States,  the  number  injured  will  average 
240  per  thousand,  or  about  168,000  per  annum.  This  is  an  enormous 
number  and  suggests  the  operation  of  a  large  army  in  an  active  com- 
paign  rather  than  that  of  an  everyday  commercial  enterprise. 

The  companies  who  keep  exact  statistics  of  these  injuries  and  their 
causes  are  few,  but  important  in  the  railway  world,  comprising  the  Pennsyl- 
vania, Pennsylvania  Company  west  of  Pittsburgh,  the  Chicago,  Burlington 
&  Quincy,  the  Philadelphia  &  Reading,  and  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio,  It 
is  to  be  deplored  that  the  number  of  such  companies  is  so  limited  as 
it  is  only  by  such  records  that  the  managements  of  the  companies  can 
be  made  to  understand  and  appreciate  the  enormous  responsibility  rest- 
ing upon  them  and  the  necessity-  for  making  every  possible  provision 
for  the  prevention  of  accidents  and  for  the  care  of  those  who  suffer 
therefrom. 

The  record  kept  by  one  of  the  companies  referred  to  shows  the  fol- 
lowing causes  of  accident  and  the  percentage  of  deaths  and  disable- 
ments arising  therefrom  : 

Death,  Injury, 

Putting  on  or  off  brakes       -         -         -         -         -         -         -  2.2$  1,3^ 

Coupling  cars           -          -          .         -         .          .         .         .  11.9  13,9 

Caught  between  cars  -         --....-  3.3  1.4 

Run  over  by  cars    --------  16.7  ,8 

Struck  by  cars  in  motion 10,5  ,9 

Fall  on  duty 1,7  9.8 

Struck  by  foreign  bodies     -------  .5  4.9 

Fire,  steam,  etc.       --------  .0  2,8 

The  shifting  of  freight         -------  .0  .2 

The  handling  of  freight  or  baggage          -         -         .         .  .3  1.9 

Lifting        -         - -  1,2  3.0 

Caught  by  machinery      -------  .3  2.7 

Caught  by  miscellaneous     -         - .3  6.1 

Miss-step         - .0  1,7 

Struck  by  overhead  bridge  -         ------  5,4  .5 

Struck  by  reverse  lever  of  engine     -----  .0  .4 

Throwing  of  switch     -...-.-.  .3  .8 

The  explosion  of  torpedo         ......  .0  .1 

Falling  from  train -         -         -  18,8  7,3. 

Getting  on  or  off  train 2,7  5,4 

The  handling  of  tools  and  materials    -         -         -         -         -  .6  31,9 

Struck  by  water  plug,  signal  post,  telegraph  pole,  etc,       -  1.8  ,5 

Wreck  and  collision    --------  21.0  3,0 

From  this  table  it  will  be  observed  that  36,2  per  cent,  of  the  deaths 
are  attributable  to  the  use  of  link  and  pin  couplers  and  hand  brakes ;  21 
per  cent,  to  wrecks  and  collisions;  16.7  per  cent,  to  being  run  over  by 
cars  ;  10.5  per  cent,  to  being  struck  by  cars,  a  total  of  84.4  per  cent. 
Only  one  other  prominent  cause  is  that  of  overhead  bridges,  amounting 
to  5.4  per  cent,  or  89.8  per  cent,  in  all.  The  principal  causes  of  injury 
are  coupling  and  the  use  of  hand  brakes,  23,9  per  cent  ;  handling  tools 
and  material,  31.9  per  cent;  fall  on  duty,  9.8  per  cent;  caught  by  mis- 
cellaneous, 6.1  per  cent  ;  getting  on  or  off  train,  5.4  per  cent  ;  struck 


2o8  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

by  foreign  bodies,  4.9  per  cent,  a  total  of  82  per  cent.  This  gives  us 
definitely  their  specific  dangers  and  their  degree. 

It  is  well  known  that  a  very  large  per  cent  of  accidents  are  caused 
by  the  personal  neglect  of  employes,  arising  from  familiarity  with  the 
dangers  attaching  to  their  occupations. 

There  are  other  causes  of  accident  for  which  the  employes  are  per- 
sonally responsible  and  which  the  companies  can  only  partiallv  guard 
against.  The  principal  ones  are  the  immoderate  use  of  liquor  bv  those 
engaged  in  hazardous  pursuits ;  the  misuse  of  time  which  should  be 
devoted  to  rest  and  the  consequent  unfitness  for  duty  when  their  turn 
comes  ;  discontent  and  lack  of  interest  and  consequent  inattention  at 
times  when  all  their  faculties  should  be  most  alert. 

Having  admitted  that  protection  is  needed,  let  us  see  what  is  being 
done  or  what  can  be  done  in  that  direction.  In  the  first  place  it  must 
be  clearly  borne  in  mind  that  the  business  interests  of  the  companies 
demand  that  as  few  accidents  as  possible  shall  occur,  for  the  very  potent 
reason  that  they  mean  loss  to  the  company  both  directly  and  indirectly, 
in  that  they  have  to  pay  damages  to  persons  and  for  goods  destroyed, 
for  replacing  rolling  stock,  track,  etc.,  and  that  passengers  and  shippers 
very  naturally  avoid  patroniz.ing  a  road  having  an  unusual  number  of 
accidents.  This  is  perhaps  the  principal  motive  actuating  directors 
and  stockholders,  who  do  not  personally  see  the  results  of  accidents,  in 
providing  men,  measures  and  means  for  their  prevention.  It  is  to  the 
honor  and  credit  of  the  operating  officials  that  humanity  largely  actuates 
them  in  recommending  the  introduction  of  every  possible  device. 

It  is  weir  known  that  the  railroads  expend  an  immense  amount 
annually  in  providing  measures  of  safety,  such  as  the  block  system, 
interlocking  devices,  new  bridges,  replacing  trestles  with  permanent 
structures,  improved  machinery  and  whatever  else  suggests  itself  to 
competent  men  employed  solely  for  the  purpose  of  making  the  lines 
safe  and  who  personally  visit  and  inspect  all  portions  of  the  companies 
property  for  this  express  purpose.  Every  railway  has  a  large  corps  of 
officers  and  men  whose  only  duty  it  is  to  provide  safety  and  these  per- 
sons can  surely  be  trusted  to  do  their  whole  duty  in  this  respect. 

The  recent  act  of  Congress  requiring  the  substitution  within  a  cer- 
tain period  of  air  brakes  and  automatic  couplers  for  the  link  and  pin 
coupler  and  the  hand  brake,  will  remove  the  most  prominent  cause  of 
injury  to  train  men,  although  it  is  to  be  expected  that  these  men  will  be 
more  exposed  during  the  transition  period.  To  what  extent  the  item  of 
wrecks  and  collisions  will  be  modified  can  only  be  ascertained  by  future 
experience. 

Of  the  other  causes  of  accident,  that  of  being  struck  by  overhead 
bridge,  mail  crane,  switch  stand,  etc.,  would  seem  avoidable  by  eleva- 
tion, removal,  or  the  use  of  efficient  guards  and  warnings  and  it  is 
believed  that  ordinarily  this  is  done  so  far  as  practicable.  It  being 
apparent  that,  although  the  companies  recognize  their  obligations  in  this 
respect  and  endeavor  to  meet  them  to  the  best  of  their  ability,  acci- 
dents will  still  happen,  and  no  matter  from  what  cause  some  systematic 
method  must  be  devised  for  the  care  of  these  people  in  alleviating  their 
suffering,  providing  for  them  during  disability  and  securing  a  living, 
upon  recovery,  for  those  so  crippled  that  they  cannot  resume  their 
former  occupations. 


PRO TECTION  AND  IMPRO  VEMENT  OF  EMPLO  VAS.      209 

It  is  thought  that  the  general  public  has  no  conception  (largely  due 
to  the  policy  of  the  companies  in  minding  their  own  business)  of  what 
is  being  done  in  this  direction,  nor  does  the  employ^  usually  appreciate 
the  efforts  made  in  his  behalf  until  his  turn  comes. 

On  the  lines  of  the  companies  previously  mentioned,  when  an 
employe  is  injured,  there  are  exact  directions  published,  accessible  to 
all  and  in  the  pockets  of  most  of  the  men,  what  to  do  for  the  injured 
person.  These  rules  show  the  names  and  addresses  of  all  the  surgeons 
employed  by  the  company  for  this  express  purpose,  and  whose  services 
can  be  obtained  free  of  expense  to  the  employ^,  without  regard  to  the 
manner  in  which  he  received  his  injury  and  whether  there  is  any  liabil- 
ity on  the  part  of  the  company  or  not.  Each  surgeon  is  required  to> 
furnish  a  substitute  in  his  absence  ;  but  the  rules  provide  that  any  sur- 
geon may  be  called  in  case  of  emergency  and  his  bill  will  be  paid  by- 
the  company.  If  the  case  is  a  serious  one  it  will  be  sent  to  a  first-class: 
modern  hospital  where  all  the  expenses  for  board,  nursing  and  treat- 
ment will  be  borne  by  the  company,  or  if  the  hospital  is  not  convenient 
or  the  patient  is  too  dangerously  injured  for  removal,  competent  nurses 
are  provided  and  he  has  the  benefit  of  the  advice  and  skill  of  specially 
qualified  surgeons  called  to  the  aid  of  the  local  surgeon.  His  disability 
is  immediately  reported  to  the  proper  officer  of  the  company,  and  he  is 
carefully  looked  after  by  a  local  medical  officer  other  than  the  surgeon 
in  charge  of  the  case,  and  any  neglect  or  inattention  is  promptly  cor- 
rected. 

In  the  published  rules  the  location  of  comfortable  stretchers  and 
emergency  cases  containing  surgical  supplies  is  given.  On  some  roads 
these  stretchers  and  emergency  cases  are  placed  on  every  train. 

During  the  time  of  such  disability  the  employ^  is  paid  a  per  diem 
allowance  equaling  one-half  pay  for  six  months,  after  which  his  allow- 
ance is  reduced  one-half,  but  continues  during  disability  although  it 
may  last  the  remainder  of  his  life,  and  at  his  death  his  family  will 
receive  the  death  allowance,  ranging  from  $250.00  to  $1250.00,  without 
the  payment  by  the  disabled  person  to  the  fund  from  which  this  allow- 
ance is  made,  of  one  cent  during  his  disability. 

All  of  you  connected  with  railroads  know  of  cases  of  total  disability 
such  as  the  loss  of  both  eyes,  both  legs,  both  arms  and  other  injuries 
forever  preventing  the  employe  from  earning  a  living  in  any  capacity. 
The  arrangement  known  as  the  relief  department  fully  provides  for  this 
class  of  cases,  usually  so  troublesome  and  expensive  to  railway  com- 
panies. 

When  the  employe  is  able  to  go  about,  if  he  has  lost  a  limb,  crutches 
are  provided,  and  the  money  is  advanced,  without  interest,  for  the  pur- 
chase of  an  artificial  limb  of  the  best  manufacture  at  the  lowest  prices 
and  upon  such  terms  of  repayment  as  the  employe  is  entirely  able  to 
make.  In  cases  of  special  hardship,  these  limbs  are  provided  entirely 
at  the  expense  of  the  company.  When  the  man  is  able  to  work, 
although  not  at  his  ordinary  occupation,  a  place  is  provided  where  he 
can  at  least  earn  a  living  and  usually  as  much  money  as  at  any  other 
occupation  he  is  qualified  for. 

If  the  accident  is  a  fatal  one,  either  at  the  time  of  its  occurrence  or 
shortly  thereafter,  the  body  is  placed  in  the  hands  of  an  undertaker 
and  decently  prepared  for  burial  before  being  delivered  to  the  family.. 


2 1  o  WORLD'S  RAIL  WA  V  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

Where  relief  departments  are  in  operation  the  widow  receives  without 
delay,  a  sum  of  money,  ranging  from  $500.00  to  $2500.00,  thereby 
relieving  her  from  immediate  anxiety.  This  is  all  the  more  appreci- 
ated when,  as  those  of  us  engaged  in  this  particular  branch  of  railway 
service  can  testify,  in  the  majority  of  cases  there  is  not  enough  ready 
money  or  property  left  by  the  deceased  to  pay  the  undertaker,  much 
less  to  make  any  provision  for  his  family.  It  is  the  policy  of  some  com- 
panies, and  should  be  of  all,  to  provide  employment  for  such  boys  of 
deceased  employes  as  are  of  suitable  age  and  for  the  widow  in  such 
positions  as  she  can  fill,  such  as  cleaning  cars,  care  of  stations,  etc. 

There  should  be  careful  investigation  to  ascertain  the  exact  cause  of 
each  accident  and  radical  measures  taken  to  prevent  a  recurrence.  This 
is  already  done  by  some  companies  and  in  addition  an  inspection  at 
least  once  a  month,  by  competent  officers,  of  all  the  property  and  a 
report  made  of  everything  observed  of  an  unsanitary  nature  or  in  any 
degree  affecting  the  safety,  health  and  comfort  of  employes  and  patrons. 

It  has  been  shown  what  progress  has  been  made  in  the  past  few 
years  in  providing  against  such  casualties  in  the  railway  service,  but 
there  is  another  class  of  employes  who  are  entitled  to  consideration; 
those  who,  escaping  accidental  injury  of  a  disabling  nature,  find  them- 
selves without  means  of  support,  whenever  through  old  age  or  infirmity, 
they  become  unable  to  perform  the  services  required  of  them  or  to  earn 
a  livelihood  in  other  pursuits.  This  class  is  provided  for  by  at  least  one 
company.  One  other  company  has  already  accumulated  a  large  sum  to 
be  eventually  devoted  to  this  purpose  although  not  yet  operative. 

It  seems  almost  farcical  to  present  any  argument  in  support  of  the 
wisdom  of  such  a  plan,  but  I  cannot  refrain  from  quoting  the  cele- 
brated Dr.  Farr  of  England,  who  boils  it  down  to  this :  "  In  the  first 
place,  superannuation  is  a  guarantee  of  fidelity  ;  in  the  second  place  it 
encourages  efficient  officers  ;  in  the  third  place  it  retains  good  men  in 
the  service ;  in  the  fourth  place  it  induces  men  to  retire  when  they 
become  old  or  inefficient  from  any  cause;  and  in  the  fifth  place  it  prevents 
old  employes  from  falling  into  disgraceful  dependence  or  distressing 
destitution,  which  would  be  a  public  scandal  and  deter  desirable  per- 
sons from  entering  the  service." 

Further  efforts  in  the  direction  of  protection  and  improvement  are 
or  should  be  made  by  the  companies  in  the  more  careful  selection  of 
those  entering  the  service,  having  in  view  not  only  the  applicant's  abil- 
ity to  fill  the  subordinate  place  he  immediately  seeks,  but  his  capacity 
for  the  higher  ones  he  may  be  expected  to  reach  either  by  promotion  or 
emergency.  In  selecting  brakemen  the  train  master  should  take  into 
consideration  the  probability  and  expectation  of  the  man  becoming  a 
conductor,  train  master,  or  even  filling  a  higher  position,  and  judge  him 
accordingly.  In  some  companies  the  applicant  is  subjected  to  a  rigid  phys- 
ical examination,  not  only  as  to  his  present  health  and  prospect  for  lon- 
gevity but  his  actual  physical  fitness  for  the  place  he  seeks.  He  is 
further  examined  (required  by  law  in  some  states)  to  determine  whether 
or  not  he  is  defective  in  sight,  hearing  or  color  sense.  The  importance 
of  this  last  examination  is  fully  demonstrated  by  the  fact  that  not  less 
than  four  per  cent  are  found  so  deficient  that  they  would  be  dangerous 
operatives  upon  any  road  requiring  the  use  and  observance  of  form  and 
color  signals.     These  men  are  rejected  for  train  service  but  can  be 


PROTECTION  AND  IMPROVEMENT  OF  EMPIOYJ&S.      21 1 

employed  in  other  capacities  where  their  deficiency  can  cause  no  danger 
to  themselves  or  others. 

Further  protection  is  afforded  by  the  refusal  of  the  companies  to 
employ  men  who  are  known  to  indulge  immoderately  in  intoxicants. 
Indeed  it  may  be  said  that  they  are  beginning  to  be  shy  of  those  indulg- 
ing even  moderately  or  suspected  of  doing  so.  Persistence  in  this 
direction  will  eliminate  one  of  the  most  prolific  causes  of  accident,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  moral  effect  on  the  men  and  the  communities  in  which 
they  live.  The  Honorable  John  T.  Mason,  late  United  States  commis- 
sioner of  internal  revenue,  who  is  most  earnestly  interested  in  the  cause 
of  temperance,  remarked  very  recently,  during  a  discussion  as  to  the 
best  methods  of  handling  the  liquor  traffic,  that  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
railroad  company  had  done  more  to  advance  the  cause  of  temperance 
in  the  state  of  West  Virginia  than  all  the  legislation  and  temperance 
societies  put  together. 

An  attempt  has  been  made  to  give  you  a  slight  idea  of  what  is  being 
done  by  some  of  the  companies  for  the  protection  of  the  employes,  and 
whose  example  might  profitably  be  followed  by  all  other  companies  and 
in  the  course  of  time  develop  the  best  results. 

We  are  further  asked  to  consider  what  can  be  done  for  the  improve- 
ment of  these  people.  This  is  of  such  importance  that  it  is  entitled  to 
the  most  careful  consideration.  The  experience  of  the  last  thirteen 
years  in  this  particular  direction  forces  the  belief  that  this  is  best 
accomplished  by  the  establishment  upon  the  lines  of  each  great  com- 
pany, and  upon  the  smaller  ones  by  consolidation,  of  a  special  depart- 
ment having  the  protection  and  improvement  of  the  employes  of  that 
company  its  sole  business.  That  such  a  department  can  be  maintained 
at  an  actual  saving  to  the  company  is  capable  of  demonstration  by  com- 
panies already  operating  in  this  direction. 

It  will  be  found  that  such  a  department  becomes  the  recipient  of 
many  valuable  suggestions  from  all  sources,  and  by  judicious  selection 
can  actually  protect  and  materially  improve  the  condition  of  employes 
by  the  expenditure  of  less  money  than  the  companies  are  now  paying 
for  injuries  to  persons,  wages  to  injured  persons,  providing  places  for 
old  employes  unable  to  earn  their  wages,  legal  expenses,  etc.  It  can 
establish  better  relations  with  their  employes  ;  do  more  in  a  systematic 
manner  for  a  larger  number  and  materially  improve  the  service  in  pro- 
curing and  retaining  better  men  therein.  To  such  a  department  should 
be  added  what  is  now  done  by  only  two  roads,  namely,  a  savings  bank 
for  employes.  This  can  be  conducted  with  few  details  and  as  simply 
as  possible,  each  agent  of  the  company  becoming  a  depositary,  the  com- 
pany holding  the  money  strictly  as  a  trust  fund  and  guaranteeing  the 
safety  of  all  deposits  and  a  low  rate  of  interest.  The  fund  so  accumu- 
lated can  be  safely  loaned  to  other  employes  at  a  legal  rate  of  interest 
for  the  purpose  of  securing  homes  for  themselves  on  the  lines  of  the 
company.  This  is  not  an  experiment.  It  has  been  in  operation  on  one 
of  the  trunk  lines  for  many  years  without  the  loss  of  a  dollar  to  either 
the  company  or  the  depositors,  and  has  been  the  medium  through 
which  hundreds  of  employes  have  acquired  homes,  who  could  never 
have  done  so  otherwise.  The  profits  from  the  money  thus  invested  are 
credited  to  the  depositors  (who  are  the  only  stockholders)  thus  materi- 
ally  benefitting   both   classes.      This   feature   has   done    more  than  it 


212  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS, 

promised,  in  that  it  has  not  only  paid  to  its  depositors  more  interest 
than  was  guaranteed,  but  more  than  is  paid  by  most  conservative  sav- 
ings banks. 

The  advantages  of  an  institution  of  this  kind  are  manifold.  It  con- 
vinces the  employe  that  the  company  has  some  interest  in  his  welfare, 
and  by  adding  its  contribution  to  his,  with  other  valuable  considerations, 
places  him  in  a  more  independent  position  when  compelled  to  lose  time 
by  reason  of  sickness  and  injury,  preventing  the  loss  of  self  respect, 
and  any  sense  of  humiliation  as  the  recipient  of  th»  charity  of  his  com- 
rades, no  matter  how  freely  bestowed,  and  enables  him  to  resume  his 
occupation  without  the  handicap  of  serious  debt  or  obligation  and  its 
consequent  discontent.  It  affords  him  the  opportunity  of  safely  invest- 
ing small  savings,  and  acquiring  a  home  of  his  own  on  the  most  advan- 
tageous terms. 

That  the  railway  company  profits  by  this  goes  without  saying.  If 
it  did  not  secure  indemnity  against  damage  suits  it  might  still  be  fully 
compensated  by  attaching  its  employes  to  its  service  by  a  community  of 
interest  at  a  little  cost. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  tendency  of  the  managers  of  labor 
organizations  is  to  give  the  employe  the  impression  that  the  company  is 
invariably  antagonistic  to  his  interests  ;  and  having  absorbed  this  idea, 
the  only  remedy  is  such  practical  efforts  on  the  part  of  the  company  as 
will  tend  eventually  to  convince  him  that  there  is  more  interest  in  his 
welfare  on  the  part  of  his  employer  than  he  has  hitherto  had  credit  for. 
This  persistence  in  kindly  acts,  not  subversive  of  good  discipline,  will 
finally  have  its  weight  and  will  either  result  in  a  change  of  tactics  on 
the  part  of  his  counsellors  or  in  his  turning  from  them  in  distrust. 

One  of  the  members  of  your  committee  (Mr.  M.  M.  Kirkman)  struck  a 
key-note  when  he  says  in  his  work  on  the  Maintenance  of  Railways  : 

"  No  one  who  is  dependent  on  the  good  will  and  fidelity  of  others  for 
the  maintenance  of  his  interest  can  afford  to  shun  their  acquaintance,  or  to 
permit  them  to  remain  in  ignorance  of  his  good  intentions  towards  them. 
On  the  contrary,  his  duty  and  interest  alike  demand  that  he  should  cul- 
tivate such  relations  with  them  as  may  be  necessary  to  assure  them  of 
his  constant  and  kindly  regard,  and  the  beneficence  of  his  purpose. 

"  When  it  is  necessary  that  men  should  entrust  the  immediate  and 
general  management  of  their  property  to  others,  they  must  do  so 
unqualifiedly  and  heartily  ;  but  such  delegation  of  power  should  never 
extend  so  far  as  to  relinquish  the  right  and  duty  of  enquiring  into  the 
status  of  subordinate  employes.  The  proprietor  will  ever  consult  his 
welfare  by  such  manifestations  of  interest  in  his  servant  and  any  general 
or  prolonged  neglect  on  his  part  to  fulfill  this  cardinal  duty  of  ownership 
will  redound  to  his  great  and  permanent  injury.  By  many  owners  such 
manifestation  of  interest  is  thought  to  be  subversive  to  good  discipline, 
and  it  is  possible  that  they  have  been  encouraged  in  this  monstrous 
delusion.  It  is  sufficiently  necessary  to  say  that  where  the  owner  of  the 
railroad  cannot  come  in  contact  with  his  employes  without  jeopardizing 
the  discipline  of  the  organization,  it  ought  not  to  require  an  outbreak 
among  his  servants  or  the  destruction  of  his  property  to  convince  him 
that  there  was  a  radical  defect  somewhere  in  its  administration.  The 
discipline  of  the  organization  that  is  dependent  on  terrorism,  upon 
ostracising  and  sequestrating  the  employe  and   upon  separating  him 


PRO  TECTION  AND  IMPRO VEMENT  OF  EMPLO  YES.      2 1 3 

from  the  acquaintance  and  sympathy  of  the  owner  is  manifestly  a  per- 
version of  responsible  methods  of  government,  and  where  they  are  prac- 
ticed evinces  mismanagement  and  may  be  accepted  as  evidence  of 
discontent  and  insubordination  and  outrageous  disregard  of  the  rights 
of  owners  by  those  who  encourage  or  practice  it.  If  the  tendency  of 
corporate  history  in  the  United  States  teaches  one  fact  more  clearly 
than  another,  it  is  that  the  owners  of  such  property  will  find  it  to  their 
advantage  to  manifest  immediate  and  personal  concern  in  its  affairs  and 
the  affairs  of  those  who  operate  it,  lest  their  personality  be  lost  and 
their  property  alienated  or  its  value  seriously  impaired.  The  posses- 
sion of  property  presupposes  the  duty  of  guardianship,  including  a 
paternal  interest  in  those  who  operate  it,  and  its  preservation  to  the 
owner  will  ultimately  depend  upon  the  general  and  wise  exercise  of  this 
duty." 

Almost  directly  on  this  same  line,  Dr.  W.  T.  Barnard  in  his  admira- 
ble article  on  "  The  Relations  of  Railway  Managers  and  their 
Employes  "  says  :  "One  result  of  the  indifference  of  railway  managers 
towards  their  subordinates  has  been  to  array  against  them  agencies 
most  potent  in  fermenting  discontent  —  secret  societies,  brotherhoods 
and  similar  organizations  ;  for  it  is  a  notorious  fact  that  they  owe  their 
success  mainly  to  the  assistance  and  relief  they  hold  out  to  their  mem- 
bers and  their  families  in  case  of  sickness,  disablement  and  death. 
Thrown  upon  his  own  resources,  the  man  who  has  constantly  before  him 
the  perils  of  his  vocation  and  the  misfortunes  that  would  result  through 
inability  to  earn  wages,  naturally  enrolls  himself  in  an  organization  that 
promises  the  needed  protection.  Constantly  confronted  with  the  history 
and  with  comparisons  of  the  grievances  of  his  fellow  members  and 
without  motive  or  cause  for  attachment  to  his  employers,  perhaps 
unconsciously  feelings  of  discontent  and  ill-will  will  arise,  and  naturally 
he  meets  any  reduction  of  wages  or  suspension  from  labor  with  outraged 
feeling  and  often  with  violent  actions,  borne  of  long  though  secret 
hostility  where  there  should  have  been  but  fraternity  and  good-fellow- 
ship of  affiliated  interests." 

Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  Jr.,  on  the  subject  of  "  Promoting  Iden- 
tity of  Interests  between  Railway  Managers  and  Employes  "  says  :  "  I 
have  been  through  the  mill  and  believe  that  a  little  attention  to  these 
matters  would  give  our  owners  a  more  zealous  and  earnest  service ; 
would  foster  and  preserve  a  higher  <?i^rz/ </^  ^(9r/^ ;  would  develop  an 
attachment  to  the  line  and  its  owners  ;  would  remove  the  possibility  of 
strikes  and  riots,  and  would  lead  to  the  securing  of  a  better  grade  of  men 
with  increased  efficiency  and  increased  net  earnings  ;  all  this  can  be 
secured  at  small  cost  and  with  little  trouble  to  the  local  management." 

The  power  to  discharge  any  employe  for  fault  by  subordinate  offi- 
cials should  be  materially  modified,  if  not  absolutely  abolished.  They 
should  only  be  vested  with  the  authority  to  suspend  from  duty  and  pay 
until  all  the  facts  were  submitted  to  a  board  of  enquiry  and  the  sus- 
pended employe  allowed  to  appear  before  that  board  and  to  defend 
himself.  It  is  perhaps  unfortunate  for  the  success  of  this  plan  as  indi- 
cating the  company's  interest  in  affording  exact  justice  to  the  lowest  of 
its  servants,  that  what  has  been  done  and  what  is  being  done  in  that 
direction  has  been  grudgingly  accorded  upon  the  demands  of  the 
employes. 


214  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

The  doctrine  of  profit-sharing,  so  strongly  advocated  by  persons 
interested  in  political  economy  and  social  science,  could  hardly  be 
applied  to  the  railways  at  the  present  time.  Examination  of  the  earn- 
ings and  expenses  of  the  principal  companies  will  convince  any  one 
that  employes  are  receiving  more  money  under  the  present  schedule  of 
wages  than  if  they  shared  all  the  profits  with  the  stockholders. 

Efforts  are  being  made  by  some  of  the  companies  to  lessen  the 
temptations  of  their  servants  by  providing  reading  rooms,  circulating 
libraries,  etc.,  but  much  more  must  be  done  to  attract  the  men  to  these 
places  and  in  interesting  them  therein.  Entertainments  entirely  of  a 
religious  or  moral  character  fail  to  attract.  Those  who  have  homes 
could  be  largely  kept  there  if  they  could  have  suitable  reading  matter, 
without  expense,  to  take  home  for  the  use  of  themselves  and  family,  A 
free  circulating  library  of  over  10,000  volumes  has  been  in  use  on  one 
of  the  trunk  lines  for  the  past  ten  years,  and  the  books  are  sent  to 
employes,  wherever  located,  by  train  mail  without  cost  to  them  or 
requiring  any  security.  The  circulation  of  these  has  been  most  extra- 
ordinary and  there  has  been  no  abuse  of  the  privilege.  This  library 
was  created  by  subscription  made  by  the  officers  and-  directors  and  the 
operating  expenses  are  paid  by  the  company. 

The  unmarried,  however,  must  have  something  more  attractive  than 
reading.  The  reading  rooms  should  be  occasionally  used  for  other 
purposes,  such  as  readings,  dramatic  entertainments,  concerts,  dances 
and  lectures  on  subjects  likely  to  interest  and  benefit  this  class  and  to 
all  of  which  the  "  lasses"  could  be  invited.  These  rooms  should  be 
regularly  visited,  unofficially,  by  the  most  prominent  officers  and  better 
impressions  of  both  officers  and  men  would  be  gained  and  no  dignity 
lost  by  such  intercourse. 

It  is  most  sincerely  hoped  that  this  subject  may  be  brought  to  the 
serious  consideration  of  those  entrusted  with  the  management  of  these 
great  interests  and  they  will  realize  that  their  duties  to  the  thousands  in 
their  service  are  not  concluded  by  the  mere  payment  of  wages  for  serv- 
ices rendered.  It  is  not  expected  that  the  millenium  will  be  advanced 
by  any  effort  to  protect  the  lives  and  limbs  of  these  people  and  to 
improve  their  condition,  but  it  may  certainly  be  assumed  that  the  busi- 
ness interests  of  the  corporations  will  be  benefited  if  more  interest  is 
had  in  the  welfare  of  their  employes  and  will  unquestionably  lead  to  the 
creation  and  maintenance  of  better  relations  between  railway  managers 
and  their  employes. 


RELIEF  OF  RAIL  WA  V  EM  PL  O  YES.  2 1 5 


RELIEF  OF  RAILWAY  EMPLOYES. 


SMITH,     SUPERINTENDENT     VOLUNTARY     RELIEF     DEPARTMENT 
PENNSYLVANIA    LINES    WEST    OF    PITTSBURG. 


The  subject  assigned  me  by  the  committee  is  "  Relief  and  Super- 
annuation of  Railway  Employes." 

Having  little  either  of  experience  or  observation  relative  to  the 
second  point,  I  beg  to  confine  your  attention,  in  the  main,  to  the  subject 
of  relief  as  now  conducted  by  a  number  of  the  leading  railways  of  the 
country. 

The  time  for  preparation  subsequent  to  receipt  of  the  committee's 
request,  has  been  brief.  I  must  beg  indulgence  if  the  paper  gives  evi- 
dence of  haste  and  imperfection. 

From  the  early  days  of  railroading  the  employes,  impelled  by  the 
always  laudable  motive  of  self-protection,  have  sought  to  organize  them- 
selves into  mutual  associations  of  one  form  or  another,  with  a  view  to 
the  alleviation  of  distress  in  individuals  and  in  families,  arising  from 
sickness,  casualty,  infirmity,  or  old  age,  and  from  death.  The  primi- 
tive subscription  paper  circulated  among  the  friends  of  those  needing 
aid,  supplemented  as  it  often  was  by  appeals  to  the  management  of 
the  railroads,  was  at  once  the  prophecy  and  the  suggestion  of  the 
relief  scheme  that  we  have  today.  The  rapidly  increasing  ranks 
of  employes  in  due  time  outgrew  this  crude  method ;  the  burden 
grew  too  heavy  for  the  ccMnparatively  few  who  must  contribute 
to  the  increasingly  frequent  calls.  A  railway  manager  says  :  "Before 
the  establishment  of  the  relief  association  there  was  hardly  a  case  of 
sickness,  accident,  or  death,  where  the  fellow- members  of  the  division, 
or  the  department  in  which  the  case  occurred,  were  not  called  upon,  or 
at  least  expected,  to  make  a  contribution  towards  its  relief."  More- 
over, the  great  majority  of  cases  involved  no  legal  liability  on  the  part 
of  the  employing  companies. 

The  mutual  benefit  associations  and  fraternal  organizations  among 
the  employes  followed,  and  with  them  the  system  of  gratuities,  estab- 
lished by  the  railroad  companies.  But  neither  so  was  the  need  met. 
Recognizing,  however,  the  claims  of  a  common  humanity,  and  the  moral 
obligation  to  aid  in  relieving  distress,  particularly  among  employes  of 
long  and  faithful  service,  and,  waiving  the  question  of  legal  liability, 
the  employing  companies  came  at  last  to  the  annual  expenditure  of  large 
sums  for  continued  compensation  of  employes  during  disability,  and  for 
gratuities  to  them  and  their  families,  reaching  thousands  and  tens  of 
thousands  of  dollars.  This  practice  was  essentially  vicious,  both  in 
principle  and  results  ;  as  toward  the  employing  company,  inequitable 
and  more  and  more  impossible  of  proper  and  discriminating  adminis- 
tration ;  as  toward  the  employes  demoralizing,  and  necessarily  inade- 
quate.    Moreover,  it  was  manifestly  unreasonable,  and,  indeed,  imprac- 


2 1 6  WORLD'S  RAIL  WA  V  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

ticable,  that  the  companies  should  provide  for  the  relief  of  all  the 
numerous  ills  to  which  such  large  bodies  of  men  must  at  all  times  be 
subject,  however  much  they  might  deplore  them. 

The  matter  became  the  subject  of  earnest  thought  and  study  on  the 
part  of  railroad  managers.  Meantime  the  associations  promoted  by  the 
employes,  in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  rising  and  flourishing  for  a 
time,  were  found  to  lack  the  elements  of  stability  and  permanence. 
Dependent  both  for  the  maintenance  of  their  numbers  and  the  collec- 
tion and  proper  disbursement  of  their  funds  upon  voluntary,  and  for 
the  most  part  unpaid  officers,  whose  duties  in  the  service  precluded  the 
thorough  attention  necessary  to  assure  success,  one  after  another  they 
waned  and  were  disbanded.  It  is  on  record  that  in  a  comparatively 
small  portion  of  our  country,  more  than  four  hundred  of  these  and  kin- 
dred associations  failed  and  were  wound  up  within  the  short  period  of 
eight  years.  Great  injustice  resulted  to  those  members  most  faithful  in 
the  support  of  these  organizations.  Paying  maximum  contributions  by 
reason  of  long  continued  membership,  they  received  a  minimum  of 
benefits,  the  result  of  reduced  membership  in  the  later  years ;  or  noth- 
ing at  all,  when  at  last  the  institutions  were  closed  up.  Manifestly 
something  more  permanent  and  reliable  was  a  necessity. 

Various  methods  were  devised  by  different  companies  to  meet  the 
requirements.  In  some  cases  the  employes  were  aided  in  securing 
advantageous  rates  from  existing  life  and  accident  companies ;  and 
facilities  for  payment  of  premiums  were  extended  through  the  paymaster, 
by  deduction  from  the  monthly  pay  roll,  authorized  by  the  employes. 
Hospital  service  was  established  by  some,  particularly  by  the  larger 
lines  extending  into  the  new  and  sparsely  settled  regions  of  the  west 
and  south,  the  employes  paying  a  monthly  assessment  for  its  support. 
Still  other  companies  made  grants  of  greater  or  less  amount  toward  the 
expenses  of  the  employes'  associations.  These  methods  all  were  found 
to  come  short  of  meeting  the  need ;  the  elements  of  financial  stability 
and  permanence  were  largely  lacking.  Moreover,  while  they  gave  pro- 
tection in  the  case  of  disablement  and  death  from  accident,  there  was 
no  fixed  nor  reliable  provision  for  cases  of  sickness.  Against  this  every- 
where prevalent  cause  of  deprivation  and  distress,  no  provision  is  to  be 
found  in  any  public  insurance  or  indemnity  company.  Says  a  railway 
manager,  writing  on  this  subject:  "  Insurance  companies  have  learned 
by  experience  that  an  insurance  indemnifying  persons  against  losses  by 
sickness  cannot  be  made  remunerative  at  any  rate  which  they  would  feel 
able  to  pay,  and  all  companies  which  have  attempted  this  class  of  insur- 
ance coming  within  my  knowledge,  have  abandoned  the  project."  Only 
where  men  are  employed  in  large  numbers,  and  under  thorough  organ- 
ization and  discipline,  is  it  feasible  or  safe  to  undertake  indemnity 
against  sickness,  and  even  then  to  a  limited  extent  only,  and  under 
thorough  safeguards. 

The  desideratum  to  be  attained  was  a  plan  by  which  the  employe 
should  be  reliably  assured  of  protection  in  case  of  disablement,  from 
whatever  cause  arising,  and  of  provision  for  those  dependent  upon  him  in 
case  of  his  decease.  The  situation  being  such,  the  employes — many  of. 
them — began  looking  to  the  companies  for  aid  in  the  solution  of  the 
problem,  and  presented  their  requests  accordingly.  Following  the  sug- 
gestions of  previous  experience,  and  profiting  by  the  lessons  inculated 


RELIEF  OF  RAIL  WA  Y  EMPLO  YJ^S.  2 1 7 

in  the  failure  of  earlier  methods,  a  system  of  relief  was  devised,  embody- 
ing the  principle  of  cooperation  between  employer  and  employed,  per- 
manent in  its  character  and  financially  secure.  It  has  been  received 
with  great  favor  among  the  employes  as  shown  by  its  rapid  growth  ; 
and  its  beneficent  results  thus  far  attest  its  value.  It  has  been  adopted 
and  is  now  in  successful  operation  on  the  Pennsylvania,  Philadelphia  & 
Reading,  Baltimore  &  Ohio,  and  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy  rail- 
roads, the  Pittsburgh,  Cincinnati,  Chicago  &  St.  Louis  railway,  and  the 
Pennsylvania  Company's  lines.       Its   principal  features  are  as  follows  : 

A  fund,  formed  chiefly  by  contributions  of  the  employes,  assigned 
by  them  for  the  purpose  out  of  their  wages,  and  collected  monthly  on 
the  pay  roll,  to  which  are  added  appropriations  by  the  company,  inter- 
est on  monthly  balances  paid  by  the  company  on  funds  held  by  it, 
income  from  investments,  and  gifts  or  legacies  which  may  be  made  to 
the  fund. 

There  are  five  classes  of  membership,  regulated  by  the  amount  of 
wages  earned,  and  contributions  to  the  fund  range  from  75  cents  per 
month  for  the  lowest  to  $3.75  per  month  for  the  highest  class.  A  pro- 
vision by  which  death  benefits  may  be  secured,  beyond  and  in  addition 
to  those  provided  for  the  several  classes,  may  increase  the  contribution 
in  the  case  of  a  member  beyond  the  age  of  sixty  years,  to  a  maximum 
of  $6.75  per  month  for  an  aggregate  death  benefit  of  $2,500.  No  con- 
tribution is  payable  by  a  member  while  under  disablement. 

Membership  is  secured  through  a  regularly  prepared  application, 
by  any  employe  not  over  forty-five  years  of  age,  upon  passing  a  satis- 
factory medical  examination,  and  is  evidenced  by  a  certificate  furnished 
the  member  upon  approval  of  his  application. 

The  fund  can  be  disbursed  only  for  benefits  to  employes  in  cases  of 
disablement  from  accident  or  from  sickness,  and  to  their  families  and 
other  beneficiaries,  as  designated  in  their  applications,  in  case  of  death. 
Any  surplus  found  at  the  end  of  each  period  of  three  years  is  to  be 
applied  toward  a  superannuation  fund,  or  in  some  other  way  for  the 
sole  benefit  of  the  members.  Nothing  can  be  diverted  from  the  fund 
for  the  expenses  of  the  plan,  which  are  wholly  borne  by  the  company 
from  its  own  treasury. 

Benefits  as  follows  are  payable  from  the  fund,  but  only  upon  duly 
attested  claims,  full  provision  for  verifying  which  is  made.  In  cases  of 
sickness,  after  the  first  six  days,  forty  cents  per  day  for  the  lowest  class, 
and  in  multiples  of  that  sum  for  each  higher  class,  to  a  maximum  of 
$2.00  per  day  for  the  highest,  to  continue  for  fifty-two  weeks.  In  cases 
of  accident  in  the  service,  from  the  first  day  of  disablement,  fifty  cents 
per  day  for  the  lowest  class,  proceeding  by  multiples  as  before  to  $2.50 
per  day  for  the  highest  class.  Sundays  and  holidays  are  included  in 
the  allowance  of  benefits.  In  case  of  death  $250.00  is  payable  on 
account  of  a  member  of  the  first  class,  and  accordingly  for  higher 
classes  up  to  $1,250  for  the  highest.  The  death  benefits  may  be 
increased  not  to  exceed  double  the  amount  provided  for  the  class  in 
which  membership  is  held.  The  maximum  death  benefit  is  $2,500. 
Free  surgical  attendance  is  provided  in  case  of  disablement  by  acci- 
dent. 

The  fund  is  administered,  and  the  membership  promoted  and  main- 
tained, by  a  department  of   the  service  established  solely  for  the  pur- 


2i8  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

pose,  and  known  as  the  relief  department.  This  department  is  under 
the  general  supervision  of  an  advisory  committee  of  thirteen  members, 
six  of  whom  are  appointed  by  the  board  of  directors  of  the  railroad 
company,  and  six  are  elected  by  ballot,  under  proper  safeguards,  by 
the  members.  The  general  manager  is  a  member  ex-officio  and  chair- 
man of  the  committee.  All  disputed  questions  are  settled  by  the 
advisory  committee,  to  which  every  member  has  the  right  of  final 
appeal. 

The  business  of  the  department,  subject  to  the  control  of  the  gen- 
eral manager,  is  directed  by  a  superintendent,  aided  by  a  suitable  cler- 
ical and  medical  staff.  The  accounts  and  disbursements  of  the  depart- 
ment are  conducted  in  accordance  with  the  methods  established  and  in 
use  by  the  company. 

The  railroads  are  sub-divided  into  medical  districts,  each  in  charge 
of  a  medical  examiner  for  reporting  upon  all  cases  of  disablement,  and 
for  examination  of  applicants  for  membership,  together  with  such  other 
appropriate  duties  as  may  pertain  to  the  office.  The  medical  staff  is 
under  the  immediate  supervision  of  a  chief  medical  examiner,  located 
at  the  office  of  the  superintendent  and  subject  to  his  direction. 

The  railroad  company  is  made  the  trustee  of  the  fund,  through  its 
relief  department,  by  regulations  which  become  the  instrument  of  trust 
between  the  employes  and  the  company.  It  guarantees  fulfillment  of 
the  obligations  of  the  department,  and  agrees  to  make  good  any  deficit 
found  in  the  fund  at  the  end  of  each  three  years.  All  the  expenses  of 
the  relief  department  are  paid  by  the  company,  and  it  grants  the  facili- 
ties of  its  organization,  and  the  services  of  its  officers  and  agents  in  aid 
of  its  operations. 

The  company  also  makes  provision  at  its  own  expense  for  continu- 
ing benefits,  in  the  discretion  of  the  board  of  directors,  in  cases  of  sick- 
ness which  may  continue' beyond  the  fifty-two  weeks  to  which  payment 
from  the  fund  on  this  account  is  limited. 

The  plan  here  sketched  is  that  in  operation  for  the  past  seven  years 
on  the  Pennsylvania  railroad  and  its  affiliated  lines  east  of  Pittsburgh, 
and  more  recently  on  the  Pennsylvania  lines  west  of  Pittsburgh.  The 
plans  adopted  by  the  other  companies  named  above,  vary  more  or  less 
from  it  in  minor  details,  but  the  salient  features  of  all  are  substantially 
the  same,  being  characterized  by  cooperation  between  employer  and 
employed,  as  evidenced  : 

1.  On  the  part  of  the  employes  by  the  provision  of  a  relief  fund, 
composed  chiefly  of  contributions  made  by  themselves. 

2.  On  the  part  of  the  employing  company  by  acceptance  of  the 
trusteeship  of  the  fund,  with  guaranty  of  its  sufficiency,  and  assumption 
of  the  responsibility  of  adminstration,  including  all  expenses  connected 
therewith. 

3.  The  adminstration  of  the  trust  through  a  department  of  the  ser- 
vice, created  solely  for  the  purpose,  which  is  under  the  general  super- 
vision of  an  advisory  committee  composed  jointly  of  representatives  of 
the  employes  and  of  the  company. 

Membership  is  voluntary  on  the  part  of  the  employes  of  the  com- 
panies named,  excepting  in  the  case  of  one  company,  which,  with  some 
exceptions,  makes  it  a  condition  of  employment  in  the  service.  Mem- 
bers may  withdraw  at  their  pleasure,  on  giving  proper  notice.  Voluntary 


RELIEF  OF  RAIL  WA  Y  EMPL  0  YJ&S.  2 1 9 

withdrawals,  in  the  experience  of  the  Pennsylvania  lines,  are  one  per 
cent  of  the  membership  per  annum  only. 

The  relief  fund,  it  will  be  seen,  combines  in  one  contribution  a 
payment  which  secures  to  the  member  benefits  of  three  different  kinas 
viz.:  For  disablement  by  accident,  for  disablement  by  sickness,  and  for 
death  from  either  cause. 

From  experience  thus  far  had,  the  cost  per  annum  of  each  of  the 
three  risks,  for  a  membership  carrying  $1,000  death  benefit,  may  be 
stated  approximately  as  follows  : 

Life  risk  —  natural  death  —  average  age,  36  years  -         -         -         -     $13.00 
Accident  risk  —  including  disablement  and  death        -         -         -  10.00 

Sickness        ...---.----       13. go 

Comparison  with  the  current  cost  of  similar  classes  of  indemnity, 
secured  through  other  methods,  will  be  found  greatly  to  the  advantage 
of  the  relief  fund.  This  advantage  will  appear,  in  still  greater  degree, 
from  a  consideration  of  the  benefits  secured,  thus  : 

At  a  cost  of  $13.00  per  annum,  a  death  benefit  of  -         -         -  -     $1,000 
At  a  cost  of  $10.00  per  annum,  accident  benefits  as  follows : 

Possible  maximum  disablement  benefit  for  ist  year          -  -              728 

"                 "                 "             benefit  for  2  years       -         -  -       1,092 

Accident  benefits  continue  at  half  rates  after  the  first  year,  during 
disability.  The  possibilities  may  be  extended  indefinitely  by  adding 
$364  for  each  additional  year.  Should  death  ensue  at  the  close  of  any 
given  year,  during  the  continuance  of  disablement,  $1,000  must  be  added 
to  the  above  figures,  thus  : 

Possible  maximum  for  disablement  and  death  — 

For  first  year $1,728 

For  two  years          -...-....  2,092 

And  an  addition  of  $364  for  each  subsequent  year,  during  the  con- 
tinuance of  disablement. 

In  case  of  sickness,  at  a  cost  of  $13  per  annum,  benefits  as  follows  : 

A  weekly  allowance  of     -         -         -         -         -         -         -  -          $11.20 

Possible  maximum  disablement  benefit  for  52  weeks       -         -  582.40 

Possible  maximum  benefit  in  case  of  termination  by  death  on  the 

last  day  of  52  weeks           .......  1,582.40 

These  figures  apply  to  membership  in  the  fourth  class,  and  to  the 
other  classes  proportionately,  as  indicated  by  their  numbers. 

Whatever  else  may  be  predicated  of  the  relief  scheme,  there  can  be 
no  question  as  to  its  liberality.  Its  provisions  are  ample  for  the  fullest 
practicable  protection  of  those  who  may  be  so  unfortunate  as  to  become 
entitled  to  its  benefits. 

The  advantages  of  the  relief  scheme  are  briefly  recapitulated  as 
follows  : 

Indemnity,  combined  in  one  risk  by  the  payment  of  one  contribution 
for  all,  against  any  and  all  personal  disablement  and  for  death. 

Low  cost  and  large  benefits. 

Benefits  in  case  of  sickness,  not  dispensed  as  charity,  but  paid  as 
the  member's  right. 

Free  surgical  attendance,  in  cases  of  disability  incurred  by  reason 
of  accident  in  the  service. 

Uniform  and  fixed  rates  of  contribution,  with  monthly  payments  in 


2  20  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

easy  sums,  avoiding  the  uncertainty  and  hardship  often  of  assessment 
calls ;  and  by  collection  through  the  pay  roll,  obviating  risk  of  forfeiture 
of  benefits  for  non-payment  of  dues,  through  oversight  or  otherwise. 

No  membership  or  entrance  fees ;  no  medical  examiner's  fees ;  no 
annual  or  quarterly  dues. 

Exemption  from  any  payment  of  contribution  while  entitled  to  dis- 
ablement benefits. 

Benefits  in  fixed  and  assured  amounts  promptly  paid.  Payments 
and  amounts  are  not  dependent  upon  responses  to  assessment  notices. 

No  burden  for  cost  of  administration.  All  expenses  met  by  the 
railroad  company,  without  charge  upon  the  fund.  All  moneys  received 
for  the  fund  applicable  only  for  the  direct  benefit  of  the  members. 

Financial  soundness  and  efficient  administration,  assured  by  the 
guaranty  of  the  fund  by  the  railroad  company,  and  its  custody  thereof; 
and  the  use  of  its  organization  and  facilities,  without  charge,  including 
the  relief  department  created  and  maintained  by  it  solely  for  the 
administration  of  the  fund. 

Some  idea  of  the  results,  thus  far  attained,  may  be  had  from  the  fol- 
lowing statistics  : 

The  relief  fund  of  the  Pennsylvania  lines  west  of  Pittsburgh  —  the 
Pittsburgh,  Cincinnati,  Chicago  &  St.  Louis  railway,  and  the  Pennsyl- 
vania company  —  during  the  first  three  and  one-half  years,  paid  bene- 
fits, amounting  to  $705,810.67.  There  was  paid,  in  addition,  by  these 
companies  from  their  own  treasuries,  for  cases  of  sickness  which  con- 
tinued beyond  the  limit  of  benefit  allowance  from  the  relief  fund, 
$8,318.60,  making  a  grand  total  of  $714,129.27.  Upon  settlement  at 
the  close  of  the  first  three  years'  period,  a  surplus  of  $7,865.88  was 
found  in  the  Pennsylvania  company  fund,  which,  with  all  income  there- 
from, is  to  be  set  apart  and  used  for  the  sole  benefit  of  the  members,  as 
before  explained.  At  the  same  time  a  deficit  was  found  in  the  fund  of 
the  Pittsburgh,  Cincinnati,  Chicago  &  St.  Louis  railway  company,  of 
$20,760.85,  which  amount  has  been  assumed  and  made  good  to  the  fund 
by  that  company,  as  required  by  the  regulations. 

From  the  relief  fund  of  the  Pennsylvania  railroad,  from  its  incep- 
tion in  1886  to  the  close  of  its  seventh  year,  in  December  last,  benefits 
have  been  paid  out  aggregating  $2,584,427.84,  and  in  addition  $79,- 
240.95  have  been  paid  by  the  company  from  its  own  treasury  for  cases 
of  sickness  which  continued  beyond  the  limit  of  allowance  from  the 
relief  fund,  making  a  grand  total  of  $2,663,668,79.  Upon  settlement 
for  the  first  triennial  period  of  this  company's  relief  fund,  there  resulted 
a  surplus  of  $189,866.1 1,  which,  with  accumulated  income,  amounted 
on  December  31st,  1892,  to  $219,954.25.  This  surplus  is  held,  as  pro- 
vided in  the  regulations,  as  a  nucleus  for  a  superannuation  fund  or 
other  use  for  the  exclusive  benefit  of  the  membership,  as  may  be  finally 
determined  upon.  A  deficit  appeared  at  the  second  triennial  settle- 
ment, for  account  of  which  the  company  has  paid  into  the  relief  fund 
$56,864.94. 

The  total  benefits  paid  up  to  December  31,  1892,  on  all  the  Penn- 
sylvania lines  between  New  York  and  Chicago,  covering  a*  period  of 
seven  years  for  the  lines  east  of  Pittsburgh  and  three  and  one-half 
years   for   the     lines    west    of    Pittsburgh,    amount    to  $3,377,798.06. 


RELIEF  OF  RAIL  WA  V  EMPLO  YES.  '  221 

The  expenses,  paid  wholly  by  the  companies,  have  been  $667,197.64  in 
addition. 

For  the  period  during  which  the  present  plan  has  been  in  operation — 
seven  years  for  the  Pennsylvania  railroad  company,  and  four  years  each, 
more  or  less,  for  the  other  railroad  companies  first  above  named — the 
aggregate  disbursement  of  benefits  by  all,  reaches  the  sum  of  $6,138,- 
814.57,  an  average  of  more  than  one  and  one-third  million  dollars  per 
annum.     The  aggregate  for  the  last  year,  1892,  is  $1,640,708. 

The  aggregate  membership  at  the  close  of  last  year,  for  all  the  com- 
panies named,  was  94,967. 

The  Baltimore  &  Ohio  railroad  company  introduced  a  plan  of  coop- 
eration with  its  employes  as  early  as  the  year  1880,  having  many  points 
in  common  with  the  one  under  consideration.  A  charter  was  obtained 
from  the  state  of  Maryland  in  1882,  incorporating  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio 
Employes'  Relief  association.  This  was  repealed  in  1888,  and  the 
association  was  then  re-organized  on  a  plan  substantially  similar  to  that 
herein  described.  Previous  to  the  re-organization,  about  $1,800,000  had 
been  paid  in  benefits  to  the  employes  and  their  families.  This  amount 
is  not  included  in  the  grand  aggregate  of  relief  fund  payments  given 
above.  Several  other  companies  cooperate  with  their  employes  in  relief 
schemes  of  more  or  less  merit,  but  none  of  them  is  so  thoroughly  organ- 
ized and  equipped  as  that  under  consideration. 

The  railway  management  and  the  railway  employes  of  this  country 
are  greatly  indebted  to  two  men  of  broad  humanitarian  and  christian 
views,  pioneers  in  this  field.  I  refer  to  Mr.  J.  A.  Anderson,  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania railroad,  the  author  of  the  scheme  which  has  been  described, 
and  Dr.  W.  T.  Barnard,  of  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  railroad.  Dr.  Barnard 
says  :  "  The  writer  has,  for  a  considerable  time  studied  the  relationship 
existing  between  the  managers  and  employes  of  many  of  our  large  cor- 
porations, and  his  observations  seem  to  justify  the  conclusion  that, 
whereas  in  no  other  business  employing  large  bodies  of  labor  is  there  a 
larger  field  for  cultivating  cordiality  and  reciprocity  of  interests  between 
owners  and  employes  than  in  railroading,  also  in  no  other  business 
(except  perhaps  mining)  have  such  opportunities  been  more  neglected." 

Mr.  Anderson  writes  concerning  the  Pennsylvania  railroad  relief: 
"  No  person  in  a  civilized  community  can  rightly  ignore  his  obligations 
to  use  his  means  and  opportunities  to  benefit  those  with  whom  he  is 
brought  into  contact,  who  are  not  equally  favored  with  himself.  Shall 
it  be  said  that  a  number  of  individuals,  united  together  in  a  cooperative 
capacity,  are  thereby  absolved  from  such  obligations  ?  Should  it  not 
rather  be  insisted  that  the  obligation  is  the  greater  upon  a  member  of 
the  community  thus  artificially  created  by  it,  and  thereby  endowed  with 
powers  and  opportunities  for  benefiting  its  members  far  greater  than 
can  possibly  belong  to  any  single  person."  And  again  :  "A  regard  for 
and  desire  to  promote  the  good  of  those  in  their  employ  has  prompted 
the  company  (Pennsylvania  railroad)  to  assume  the  risk  and  responsi- 
bility of  this  undertaking.  It  is  believed  to  be  in  conformity  with  the 
spirit  of  the  age,  which  demands  a  better  state  of  feeling  between  the 
employers  and  the  employed,  begotten  of  that  kindness  and  justice  which 
correct  minds  of  every  age  have  held  to  be  due  from  those  to  whom 
providence  has  entrusted  the  power  to  benefit  or  oppress.  There  could 
be  no  motive  sufficient  to  warrant  entering  into  so  expensive  a  scheme 


2  2  2  WORLD'S  RAIL  WA  V  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

with  all  the  difficulties  attending  it,  if  that  motive  were  not  such  as  to 
meet  with  approval  when  clearly  understood." 

These  are  noble  words  and  true,  and  I  am  sure,  will  meet  with  the 
approbation  of  all. 

It  is  gratifying  to  note  the  interest  taken  by  the  Interstate  com- 
merce commission  in  this  subject.  I  quote  from  the  report  of  the  com- 
mission for  the  year  1889  :  "  Though  questions  relating  to  the  well-being 
of  men  in  railroad  employ,  and  of  their  families,  are  not  by  the  act  to 
regulate  commerce  expressly  referred  to  this  commission,  they  are  not 
so  far  foreign  to  it  as  to  preclude  their  receiving  some  attention  at  our 
hands.  Indeed,  the  prosperity  of  railway  corporations,  and  the  safety 
and  usefulness  of  the  service  performed  by  them,  is  largely  connected 
with  the  condition  of  their  employes,  and  it  is  therefore  not  only  natural 
that  public  interest  in  such  condition  should  be  largely  enlisted  on  human- 
itarian  grounds ;  but  that  also  it  should  receive  the  attention  of   public 

authorities  because  its  being  a  matter  of  general  concern 

A  comprehensive  view  of  the  relations  which  exist  between  them  and 
the  corporations  by  which  they  are  employed,  is  therefore  no  less  inter- 
esting than  important ;  and  it  seems  desirable  to  the  commission  that 
facts  should  be  gathered,  showing  not  only  what  provisions  were  made 
in  the  nature  of  insurance  for  the  persons  and  families  of  employes  by 
organization  among  themselves,  but  also  to  what  extent  their  employers 
have  made  provisions  for  funds  to  accomplish  a  like  purpose." 

There  is  an  evident  and  growing  sense  of  obligation  on  the  part  of 
railway  corporations  to  look  after  the  welfare  of  the  employes,  which  is 
a  sign  of  promise.  Nothing  can  more  conduce  to  the  satisfactory  and 
economical  transaction  of  business  than  a  cordial  sympathy  between 
employer  and  employe.  In  this  is  found  justification  for  any  and  all 
reasonable  expenditures,  and  the  sorry  experiences  of  the  past  few  years 
emphasize  the  need  of  wise  measures  to  this  end. 

If  this  discussion  shall  be  the  means  of  calling  wider  attention  to 
this  subject,  and  of  promoting  a  deeper  interest  on  the  part  of  railway 
managers  in  the  proper  relation  of  the  corporation  to  the  welfare  of  its 
employes,  particularly  when  they  are  overtaken  by  calamity  or  old  age, 
it  will  amply  repay  the  labor  of  its  preparation. 

Thanking  the  committee  for  the  opportunity  afforded  for  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  subject,  and  thanking  you,  gentlemen,  for  your  attention, 
I  commend  the  subject  to  your  further  careful  consideration,  in  the  hope 
that  it  may  lead  to  action,  profitable  alike  to  railway  corporations  and 
their  employes. 


III. 

RAILWAY 
HISTORY  AND    DEVELOPMENT. 


THE    EVOLUTION    OF   THE    AMERICAN    RAILROAD  SYSTEM. 


BY    JOSEPH    NIMMO,    JR. 


In  addressing  this  congress  upon  a  topic  so  broad  and  so  compre- 
hensive as  The  Evolution  of  the  American  Railroad  System  it  is  of 
course  necessary  to  confine  my  attention  to  some  special  treatment  of 
the  subject,  and  to  some  particular  line  of  thought  embracing  the  his- 
tory of  railroad  transportation  from  its  genesis  in  the  United  States, 
about  the  year  1830,  to  the  present  time.  I  shall  therefore  ask  your 
attention,  first,  to  some  of  the  conditions  which  constitute  the  environ- 
ment of  the  American  railroad  system  and  which  prescribe  the  law  of 
its  being,  and,  second,  to  the  circumstances  under  which,  and  the  acts 
by  which,  the  physical  unity  of  that  system  has  been  accomplished. 

The  railroads  first  constructed  in  this  country  gave  but  slight  notice 
of  the  conditions  under  which  transportation  by  rail  is  being  conducted 
in  this  centennial  year  1893.  It  was  for  several  years  a  debated  ques- 
tion as  to  whether  the  owners  and  managers  of  railroads  ought  to  be 
allowed  also  to  own  and  manage  the  vehicles  and  the  motors  employed 
upon  them  in  the  work  of  transportation.  But  the  lessons  of  experience 
soon  solved  that  question.  Every  consideration  of  economy,  of  safety 
and  of  public  convenience  pointed  to  an  undivided  corporate  ownership 
and  a  common  management  of  roadway  and  equipment,  and  accord- 
ingly that  has  become  the  established  law  of  railroad  development. 
Then  the  question  was  agitated  for  several  years  as  to  whether  this  new 
and  wonderfully  potential  instrument  of  commerce  should  or  should  not 
by  owned  and  operated  by  the  several  states  of  the  union  in  order  to 
avoid  the  danger  of  allowing  private  corporations  so  highly  endowed  with 
the  control  of  commerce  to  set  their  own  interests  up  above  the  public 
interests.  The  experiment  of  state  ownership  and  management  of 
railroads  was  tried  in  six  states,  viz.:  Massachusetts,  Michigan,  Penn- 
sylvania, Illinois,  Indiana  and  Georgia.  These  attempts  at  govern- 
mental ownership  and  management  were  made  at  a  time  when,  as 
hereinafter  indicated,  the  governing  conditions  were  much  more  favor- 
able to  success  than  they  are  at  the  present  time,  and  yet  all  these  exper- 

223 


^    224  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

iments  resulted  in  absolute  failure.  From  a  purely  economic  and 
commercial  point  of  view  they  demonstrated  the  wisdom  of  remitting 
the  entire  work  of  railroad  construction  and  operation  to  private  enter- 
prise, and  besides  they  also  proved,  beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt,  that 
the  political  institutions  of  this  country  are  not  adapted  to  the  success- 
ful administration  of  transportation  by  rail. 

Several  states  of  the  union  besides  those  above  mentioned  made 
large  loans  and  grants  of  lands,  br  became  stockholders  in  railroads, 
from  correct  views  as  to  their  enormous  powers  for  developing  the  nat- 
ural resources  of  the  country  ;  but  such  states  prudently  refrained  from 
any  attempt  at  state  management  of  railroads.  The  state  of  Virginia, 
for  example,  was  at  one  time  a  subscriber  to  two-fifths  of  the  stock  of 
certain  railroads  and  canals,  but  was  never  tempted  into  the  experiment 
of  state  railroad  management.  The  state  of  Missouri  became  the 
owner  of  several  railroads  upon  the  default  of  their  obligations  to  the 
state,  but  the  results  of  state  ownership  in  other  states  deterred  the 
people  of  Missouri  from  the  attempt  to  repeat  such  experiments. 
Accordingly  the  railroads  thus  acquired  by  foreclosure  were  sold  in  the 
year  1868  to  private  corporations. 

The  general  tendency  of  all  the  states  of  the  union  during  the  last 
thirty  years  has  been  to  withdraw  entirely  from  any  sort  of  financial 
association  with  railroad  construction  or  management. 

But  the  attempts  at  state  control  of  railroad  transportation  cut  a 
small  figure  in  the  otherwise  unbroken  evolution  of  the  American  rail- 
road system  under  the  plan  of  independent  corporate  ownership  and 
control  of  both  the  roadway  and  the  equipment  employed  upon  it. 

Until  about  the  year  1850  the  railroads  of  the  United  States  were 
practically  autonomies  in  the  work  of  transportation  ;  that  is  to  say, 
each  line  had  an  independent  territorial  traffic  area,  and  in  all  matters 
relating  to  rate-making  and  general  management  was  independent  of 
all  other  railroad  companies.  But  this  state  of  affairs  rapidly  passed 
into  a  condition  of  the  most  extended  and  complex  combination  and 
cooperation,  and  of  the  most  intense  competition.  Competing  lines 
were  rapidly  constructed  between  all  the  more  important  sources  of 
traffic.  Many  of  these  lines  were  constructed  in  competition  with 
canals,  and  with  rivers  and  other  natural  waterways.  The  tracks  of 
coterminous  lines  were  also  connected,  so  that  in  time  the  railroads  of 
the  country  formed  one  intimately  connected  network  of  transportation 
lines. 

This  concatenation  of  railroad  lines  has  by  an  imperious  force  of 
circumstances,  independent  of  any  intent  on  the  part  of  railroad  owners 
and  managers,  led  up  to  the  evolution  of  the  American  railroad  system, 
which  today  presents  itself  to  the  commercial,  industrial  and  social 
interests  of  the  country  as  practically  one  system  of  transportation  with 
respect  to  travel  and  the  transportation  of  merchandise  and  the  mails. 

It  is  my  present  purpose  to  point  to  the  more  important  circum- 
stances and  conditions  attending  this  evolution,  and  briefly  to  describe 
the  commercial  and  physical  forces  whose  interaction  has  evolved  eco- 
nomic laws  which  today  determine  the  course  and  govern  the  conduct 
of  the  internal  commerce  of  the  United  States. 


E  VOL  UTION  OF  AMERICAN  RAILROAD  SYSTEM.  225 

PRACTICAL    DIFFICULTIES    WHICH    HAVE     ARISEN    IN    THE    COURSE    OF 
THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF    THE    AMERICAN     RAILROAD    SYSTEM. 

The  fact  that  the  railroad  is  an  avenue  of  commerce,  the  pathway 
of  which  is  no  wider  than  the  wheel  of  the  vehicle  which  moves  upon 
it,  at  the  very  outset  forbade  that  it  should  become  in  the  ordinary 
sense  a  free  highway.  This  physical  disability,  if  such  it  may  be 
termed,  developed  new  experiences  and  led  to  important  modifications 
of  the  law  of  the  common  carrier  in  its  application  to  railroad  transpor- 
tation. 

As  lines  were  extended  and  connected,  and  as  competing  roads 
were  constructed,  the  transportation  interests  of  the  United  States 
rapidly  assumed  a  degree  of  complexity  which  transcended  the  ability 
of  the  most  intelligent  to  understand  and  baffled  the  skill  of  the  most 
adroit  railroad  managers  to  carry  into  execution  any  proposed  scheme 
of  adminstration.  Railroad  managers  were  at  their  wits'  end.  For 
years  wars  of  rates  prevailed  extensively  and  receipts  from  traffic  were 
greatly  reduced.  Many  railroad  companies  were  driven  into  bank- 
ruptcy and  others  were  seriously  embarrassed. 

The  precise  difficulty  which  confronted  the  railroad  interests  of  the 
country  was  that  as  railroad  lines  extended  and  competition  among 
them  was  developed  the  vitally  important  matter  of  determining  rates 
was  remitted  to  soliciting  agents  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  a  class  of 
men  neither  amenable  to  the  caution  which  attaches  to  ownership  nor 
governed  in  the  exercise  of  their  discretionary  powers  by  any  general 
line  of  policy,  presumably  at  least,  directed  to  the  object  of  conserving 
the  interests  of  the  corporations  by  which  they  were  employed.  This 
procedure  was  not  an  expression  of  caprice  or  of  any  vicious  propensity 
on  the  part  of  railroad  managers.  It  was  dictated  by  a  force  of  circum- 
stance and  a  compulsion  of  environing  conditions  entirely  beyond  their 
control,  and  it  constituted  a  phase  in  the  processes  of  a  mighty  evolution. 
In  the  course  of  time  published  freight  tariffs  furnished  to  the  public  no 
reliable  information  whatever  as  to  the  actual  rates  charged. 

The  commercial  and  industrial  interests  of  the  country  suffered 
from  this  state  of  affairs  even  more  than  did  the  railroad  companies. 
Discriminations  as  between  shippers  under  like  conditions  became  the 
rule,  and  rate  making  in  almost  all  cases,  became  a  mere  matter  of  con- 
trivance as  between  individual  shippers  and  an  army  of  irresponsible 
soliciting  freight  agents.  Mr.  Albert  Fink,  one  of  the  ablest  railroad  mana- 
gers of  the  country,  thus  described  the  manner  in  which,  by  the  practi- 
cal abrogation  of  their  authority,  the  proprietors  of  railroads  lost  the  power 
of  determining  what  they  should  be  paid  for  the  services  rendered  by 
them  to  the  public. 

"  The  stockholders  in  the  first  place  surrender  their  control  to  a 
board  of  directors,  the  board  of  directors  surrender  it  to  the  president, 
the  president  surrenders  it  to  a  general  manager,  who  in  turn  surren- 
ders it  to  general  freight  agents  of  his  own  and  a  great  number  of  other 
roads,  who  again  surrender  it  to  large  number  of  soliciting  agents,  and 
finally  these  soliciting  agents  surrender  it  to  the  shippers.  The  ship- 
pers practically  make  their  own  rates.  The  result  is  confusion  and 
demoralization  of  traffic,  and  no  end  to  unjust  discriminations  between 
shippers  and  localities." 

\ 


2  26  WORLUS  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

The  general  freight  agents  also  made  special  secret  contracts  with 
the  larger  shippers  for  months  in  advance  as  to  the  rates  which  they 
should  pay.  No  shipper  knew  on  one  day  what  rates  would  prevail  on 
the  next,  nor  had  he  any  idea  as  to  the  rates  which  his  competitors  in 
trade  were  paying  for  transportation  services.  Thus  the  whole  matter 
of  freight  charges  became  involved  in  incertitude.  Falsehood  and 
deception  became  the  rule  and  fair  dealing  the  exception.  This  state 
of  affairs  was,  of  course,  utterly  demoralizing  to  trade.  It  was  also 
glaringly  in  contravention  of  the  great  fundamental  law  of  commercial 
ethics,  that  in  the  competitive  struggles  of  life  men  shall  be  permitted 
to  live  and  labor  in  an  open  field  and  in  a  pure  atmosphere.  Loud 
and  bitter  complaints  arose  on  account  of  the  outrageous  discrimina- 
tions made  in  rates. 

A  more  serious  result,  however,  arose  from  the  fact  that  glaring 
discriminations  were  made  as  between  different  localities  and  trade 
centers.  For  example,  the  rates  were  at  one  time,  so  much  less  from 
Boston  to  the  west  than  from  New  York  to  the  west  that  commerce  was 
turned  from  the  latter  to  the  former  city.  Shipments  in  considerable 
quantities  were  also  made  from  New  York  to  Chicago  via  Boston. 
This  condition  of  affairs,  of  course,  gave  rise  to  bitter  complaints  against 
railroad  management  generally.  Trade  and  industry  became  demoral- 
ized by  uncertainties  which  neither  the  merchant  nor  the  manufacturer 
could  foresee,  and  against  which  they  could  not  provide. 

In  a  word  the  fundamental  economic  fact  that  the  railroad  is  not, 
and  in  the  nature  of  things  cannot  be,  a  free  highway  of  commerce  on 
which  rates  are  determined  and  fairly  regulated  by  unrestrained  com- 
petition among  common  carriers,  had  led  up  to  a  stage  in  the  evolution 
of  the  railroad  system  of  the  country  where  it  had  gotten  beyond  all 
control.  If  this  state  of  affairs  had  continued  much  longer  all  the  rail- 
roads of  the  country  would  probably  have  been  absorbed  by  and  dis- 
tributed among  three  or  four  great  corporations.  But  that  would  have 
been  calamitous,  for  it  would  have  involved  the  danger  of  an  absolute 
governmental  control  of  the  railroads  with  all  the  evils  incident  to  such 
exercise  of  power. 

It  seemed  for  awhile  as  though  the  evolution  of  the  American  rail- 
road system  has  proceeded  beneficially  up  to  a  certain  point  and  then 
falling  into  irretrievable  disorder.  And  yet  it  was  too  absurd  for  serious 
thought  to  assume  that  the  men  of  this  generation  had  created  a  vast 
and  potential  system  of  transportation  which  they  lacked  the  virtue  or 
ability  to  administer.  At  last  the  dearly  bought  lessons  of  experience 
clearly  proved  that  all  the  troubles  just  recounted  were  necessary 
for  the  inculcation  of  the  fundamental  truth  that  transportation  upon 
a  ohighly  organized  and  sharply  conditioned  artificial  highway  com- 
merce, such  as  the  railroad,  cannot  be  regulated  by  laws  which 
totally  different  experiences  have  proved  to  be  just  and  beneficial 
in  the  government  of  transportation  on  free  highways  of  commerce. 
The  men  of  this  generation  were  simply  summoned  by  those  very 
troubles  to  the  task  of  formulating  and  giving  expression  to  laws 
evolved  by  the  new  commercial  and  economic  experiences.  But  all 
this  is  merely  a  fresh  chapter  in  the  old,  old  story  of  human  progress 
guided  by  rough  experiences. 


EVOLUTION  OF  AMERICAN  RAILROAD  SYSTEM.  227 

CERTAIN    ESTABLISHED    REGULATIONS    OF    TRANSPORTATION    BY    RAIL. 

The  more  important  of  the  new  rules  evolved  as  the  experimental 
law  of  the  railroad  are  as  follows  : 

1.  The  publication  of  freight  tariffs :  At  a  very  early  period  in  the 
history  of  railroad  transportation  the  fact  was  developed  that  railroad 
companies  must  frame  and  publish  freight  tariffs,  presumably  in  force 
until  a  new  tariff  is  published.  This  was  a  departure  from  the  practice 
which  had  always  prevailed  upon  free  highways  of  commerce,  but  it 
was  clearly  seen  to  be  necessary  upon  so  constrained  a  commercial 
highway  as  the  railroad. 

The  laws  of  all  the  states  which  have  legislated  upon  the  subject, 
and  the  laws  of  the  United  States  enacted  for  the  regulation  of  railroad 
transportation  services,  recognize  this  necessity.  The  publication  of 
freight  tariffs  may  be  regarded  as  the  initial  step  in  the  establishment 
of  just  and  practical  railroad  regulation,  and  as  a  proper  restraint  upon 
the  freedom  of  competition.  I  shall  waste  no  words  in  the  unnecessary 
attempt  to  justify  it. 

2.  Agreements  as  to  competitive  rates:  All  experience  in  railroad 
transportation  has  clearly  proved  that  agreements  as  to  the  rates  which 
shall  be  charged  for  competitive  traffic  are  necessary  to  the  orderly  and 
just  administration  of  railroad  transportation.  The  laws  of  states  and 
of  the  United  States  recognize  such  agreements  as  in  the  nature  of  just 
and  wholesome  restraints  upon  railroad  transportation.  But  this  regu- 
lation goes  directly  in  the  face  of  the  rule  of  free  competition  which 
prevails  on  free  highways  of  commerce.  It  would,  however,  be  a  waste 
of  words  to  attempt  to  prove  the  propriety  of  this  rule,  so  generally  is  it 
recognized. 

3.  The  tmiforin  classification  of  freights :  The  same  experiences 
which  gave  rise  to  the  publication  of  freight  tariffs  and  agreements  as 
to  competitive  rates,  also  led  the  railroad  companies  to  adopt  common 
classifications  of  freight  upon  which  related  freight  tariffs  may  be 
formulated.  This  rule  or  practice  commands  general  approbation.  It 
is  also  regarded  as  a  just  and  beneficent  restraint  upon  the  freedom  of 
competition  on  railroads,  although  having  no  place  in  the  conduct  of 
transportation  on  free  highways  of  commerce.  Like  the  publication  of 
rates,  and  agreements  as  to  competitive  rates,  this  particular  restraint 
upon  the  freedom  of  railroad  competition  rests  upon  a  generally  accepted 
and  firmly  established  rule  of  public  policy.  The  interstate  commerce 
commission  has  even  gone  so  far  as  to  recommend  a  uniform  classifica- 
tion of  freights  throughout  the  country.  That  may  come,  although  it 
involves  rather  to  much  of  a  levelling  process  at  the  present  time. 

4.  A?npie  public  notice  of  intettded changes  in  rates:  Experience 
has  clearly  proved  the  commercial  importance  of  such  notice.  Changes 
of  railroad  transportation  charges  without  due  public  notice  tend 
to  demoralize  trade.  Changes  in  rates,  if  announced  only  to 
favored  shippers,  constitute  a  flagrant  and  unjust  discrimination. 
But  public  notice  of  intended  changes  in  rates  are  repugnant  to 
the  law  of  unrestrained  competition  on  free  highways  of  com- 
merce. The  independent  power  to  change  rates  from  day  to  day 
without  notice  is  one  of  the  recognized  characteristics  of  the  freedom 
of  competition  on  such  highways.     The  lessons  of  experience,  however, 


2  28  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

have  proved  both  to  railroad  managers  and  to  the  public  generally  that 
the  restraint  of  ample  public  notice  of  intended  changes  of  railroad  rates  is 
not  only  justifiable,  but  that  it  is  clearly  dictated  by  sound  views  of  public 
policy.  This  particular  restraint  upon  the  freedom  of  competition  on 
railroads  first  commended  itself  to  the  approbation  of  railroad  mana- 
gers, and  it  is  now  a  fundamental  feature  of  the  interstate  commerce  act. 

Various  other  self-imposed  rules  in  the  nature  of  regulations  in 
restraint  of  the  absolute  freedom  of  competition  on  railroads  have  been 
instituted  by  railroad  managers,  and  the  lessons  of  experience,  patent 
to  the  observation  of  all  the  world,  not  only  justify  but  absolutely  demand 
the  imposition  of  such  restraints. 

The  interstate  commerce  commission  is  today  devoting  its  energies, 
under  the  general  or  specific  requirements  of  law,  to  the  enforcement  of 
all  those  wholesome  restraints  just  mentioned  upon  railroad  competi- 
tion, and  governmental  regulation  today  abandons  as  utterly  impractic- 
able that  freedom  of  competition  in  transportation  by  rail  which  charac- 
terizes transportation  upon  free  highways  of  commerce.  Moreover,  ■ 
every  observant  mind  clearly  perceives  that  the  specific  restraints  upon 
the  freedom  of  railroad  transportation  hereinbefore  considered  are  based 
upon  the  fact  that  the  railroad  is  not,  and  in  the  nature  of  things  can 
never  become,  a  free  highway  of  commerce. 

But  all  this  is  simply  a  recognition  of  the  generally  accepted  truth 
that  the  largest  and  best  results  of  our  complex  and  refined  civilization 
are  the  product  of  restraints.  We  have  liberty  only  as  restrained  by 
law.  The  discovery  and  application  of  wholesome  restraints  upon 
human  action  is  in  fact  the  most  important  requisite  of  human  progress. 

The  adoption  and  enforcement  of  the  particular  restraints  above 
mentioned  upon  the  freedom  of  railroad  competition,  have  not,  how- 
ever, proved  fully  adequate  to  the  abatement  of  the  evils  described. 
Much  yet  remains  to  be  done  in  order  to  secure  the  harmonious  working 
of  the  American  railroad  system.  After  all  the  restraints  upon  railroad 
transportation  already  described  had  been  fully  established,  the  general 
freight  agents,  or  other  officers  having  the  management  of  the  freight 
traffic  of  rival  roads,  would  from  time  to  time  meet  together  and  agree 
as  to  the  rates  which  should  prevail ;  but  difficulties  inherent  in  the  sys- 
tem of  railroad  transportation  frequently  rendered  null  and  void  all  such 
attempts.  It  appeared  that  whenever  agreements  for  the  maintenance 
of  rates  were  entered  into  there  was  a  mental  reservation  on  the  part  of 
the  representative  of  each  road  that  his  observance  of  the  agreed  rate 
was  conditioned  upon  the  fact  that  his  line  was  to  secure  the  share  of 
traffic  to  which  he  believed  it  to  be  entitled  at  each  competing  point.  The 
result,  therefore,  was  almost  invariably  that,  soon  after  such  agreements 
were  made,  the  soliciting  agents  of  one  or  more  of  the  competing  lines 
would  have  recourse  to  the  cutting  of  rates,  in  order  to  make  tip  the 
assumed  deficiency  in  his  share  of  the  traffic.  Usually  such  rate-cutting 
was  based  upon  representations  of  shippers,  sometimes  true  and  some- 
times false,  to  the  effect  that  offers  of  cut  rates  had  been  made  to  them 
by  the  agents  of  competing  lines.  This  was  a  constant  source  of  trouble 
and  demoralization.  It  was  therefore  clearly  perceived  that  some  new 
restraint  must  be  adopted  in  order  to  preserve  the  harmonious  and  bene- 
ficent administration  of  our  vast  and  complex  railroad  system.  The 
root  of  the  difficulty  lay  in  the  fight  by  each  company  for  a  larger  share 


E  VOL  UTION  OF  AMERICAN  RAILROAD  S YSTEM.  229 

of  the  competitive  traffic  than  any  other  company  was  willing  to  grant 
it.  Hence  was  evolved  out  of  the  fierce  interaction  of  forces  the  new 
law  of  self-restraint — agreements  as  to  the  share  of  the  competitive  traffic 
which  should  be  carried  by  each  line.  This  expedient  is  repelled  by 
independent  common  carriers  in  the  narrow  sphere  in  which  such  carri- 
ers compete  on  disassociated  free  highways  of  commerce,  and  for  a  long 
time  it  was  repelled  by  railroad  managers  as  a  curtailment  of  their  lib- 
erty, but  at  last  it  was  seen  to  be  a  necessary  feature  of  a  just  and  proper 
administration  of  the  traffic  of  railroads  constituting  by  their  enforced 
relationships  one  vast  and  closely  related  American  railroad  system. 
In  a  word,  it  was  seen  that  competition  upon  such  a  system  of  transpor- 
tation must  be  placed  in  a  complete  harness  of  self-restraint  not  appli- 
cable to  common  carriers  on  turnpikes,  canals,  and  rivers. 

The  agreement  as  to  the  apportionment  of  traffic  is  the  corollary  of 
the  rate  agreement,  and  the  former  is  no  more  in  restraint  of  competi- 
tion than  is  the  latter.  Both  restrain  destructive  competition,  which 
runs  to  disorder. 

The  question  as  to  whether  agreements  in  regard  to  the  share  of 
competitive  travel  shall  or  shall  not  be  legalized  is,  however,  one  which 
has  been  and  is  today  hotly  contested.  Even  men  who  concede  the 
justice  and  necessity  of  the  publicity  of  rates,  of  ample  notice  of  changes 
in  rates,  of  the  observance  of  agreements  as  to  rates,  and  who  acknowl- 
edge the  absolute  necessity  of  printed  railroad  freight  tariffs  and  freight 
classifications,  deny  the  justice  and  the  necessity  of  agreements  as  to  the 
share  of  the  traffic  which  shall  be  awarded  to  each  competitor  as  the 
substantial-  basis  upon  which  the  efficacy  of  all  other  restraints  upon  the 
absolute  freedom  of  competition  must  depend.  The  logic  of  the  situa- 
tion, and  the  stern  lessons  of  experience,  force  me  to  the  conviction  that 
these  objections  to  agreements  as  to  the  equitable  division  of  competi- 
tive traffic  constitute  a  barrier  to  the  progress  of  the  American  railroad 
system  and  a  blight  upon  its  natural  and  proper  evolution.  The  history 
of  such  agreements  is,  in  brief,  as  follows  :  After  the  repeated  failures 
of  agreements  as  to  the  maintenance  of  rates,  in  order  to  cure  the  evils 
incident  to  these  disastrous  and  almost  continuous  wars  of  rates  which, 
as  already  explained  threw  the  internal  commerce  of  the  country  into 
confusion,  it  was  conceded  by  certain  able  railroad  managers,  who  had 
carefully  studied  the  situation  and  who  had  acquainted  themselves  with 
the  philosophy  of  its  teachings,  that  unless  the  companies  should  first 
agree  as  to  the  share  of  the  competitive  traffic  which  each  was  to  secure, 
agreements  as  to  the  maintenance  of  rates  would  be  useless.  It  was 
proved  to  them  that  the  receipts  from  competitive  traffic  under  a  fair 
apportionment  would  exceed  the  receipts  from  even  a  larger  share  of  it 
which  might  possibly  be  secured  during  a  war  of  rates.  It  is  also' a  fact 
attested  by  the  leading  commercial  bodies  of  this  country,  that  agree- 
ments as  to  the  division  of  traffic  have  secured  the  just  and  equitable 
conduct  of  the  railroad  transportation  interests  of  the  country.  Besides, 
rates  reasonably  remunerative  to  the  carriers,  common  to  all  shippers, 
and  steadily  maintained,  are  found  to  be  infinitely  better  for  the  general 
good  of  the  country  than  even  much  lower  rates,  unjustly  discriminating 
and  wildly  fluctuating,  and  which  inevitably  lead  to  disorder  and  the 
demoralization  of  trade.  This  is  not  theory,  nor  can  it  be  refuted  by 
theory.     It  is  fact,  inculcated  by  the  hard  lessons  of  actual  experience. 


2  30  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

It  was  only  after  much  opposition  and  many  infractions  of  agree- 
ments as  to  the  division  of  traffic  that  the  dissenting  companies  were 
forced  to  the  confession  that  the  loss  of  their  independence  which  such 
agreements  involve  constitutes  a  wholesome  restraint  upon  the  freedom 
of  competition.  And  I  believe  that  the  public  mind  is  rapidly  coming 
to  the  conclusion  that  such  restraint  of  competition  is  justified  by  sound 
views  of  public  policy  drawn  from  the  lessons  of  a  protracted  and  stern 
experience.  When  the  people  of  this  country  come  to  realize  this 
important  truth,  as  they  certainly  will,  and  to  impose  upon  their  repre- 
sentatives in  legislative  assemblies  the  duty  of  conforming  the  laws  of 
the  country  to  this  clearly  evolved  law  of  the  American  railroad  system 
then,  and  not  until  then,  will  that  system  become  an  orderly  and  self- 
regulated  institution. 

The  experiences  already  recounted  have  proved  beyond  all  reason- 
able doubt  that  free  competition  among  railroads  in  the  manner  and  to 
the  extent  that  it  is  practiced  by  common  carriers  on  free  highways  of 
commerce  is  utterly  impracticable.  Railroad  transportation  must 
therefore  be  subjected  to  such  restraint  as  the  lessons  of  experience 
have  proved  to  be  just  and  necessary.  I  strenuously  maintain  that  the 
acceptance  of  this  general  truth  is  preliminary  to  the  proper  adjustment 
of  the  railroads  to  the  public  interests. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  in  giving  the  force  of  legality  to  so  much  which 
experience  had  proved  to  be  just  and  beneficent  the  legislator  should 
have  gone  astray  in  regard  to  a  clearly  established  law  of  the  Amer- 
ican railroad  system  which  had  been  forced  upon  railroad  managers 
by  the  logic  of  events.  I  refer  to  the  fact  that  the  fifth  section  of 
the  interstate  commerce  act  forbids  such  agreements,  and  thereby 
incites  the  railroads  to  the  violation  of  every  beneficent  provision  of  the 
statute. 

The  specious  objection  is  urged  to  agreements  as  to  the  division  of 
traffic,  that  they  are  similar  to  agreements  made  for  the  suppression  of 
competition  and  for  establishing  monopolies  in  commercial  and  indus- 
trial pursuits.  It  appears  to  be  a  sufficient  answer  to  such  objections 
to  say  that  combinations  of  every  character  which  tend  to  forward  the 
beneficent  enterprise  of  the  age  are  also  employed  for  evil  purposes. 
Knives  are  instruments  of  great  utility,  and  their  use  is  not  to  be  pro- 
scribed because  they  are  sometimes  employed  to  do  murder  and  to  com- 
mit suicide. 

There  are  gentlemen  in  this  city  and  in  this  section  of  the  country — 
journalists  and  men  in  public  life — who  have  controverted  and  still 
stoutly  controvert  the  views  just  expressed — views  which,  as  govern- 
ment officer  and  as  private  citizen,  I  have  been  forced  to  accept  as  the 
result  of  laborious  investigation  and  scrutiny.  While  I  have  no  doubt 
whatever  as  to  the  absolute  sincerity  of  those  gentlemen,  and  while  I 
entertain  the  highest  respect  for  their  ability  to  discuss  public  questions, 
I  am  as  firmly  convinced  that  they  are  in  error  as  I  am  of  my  own 
existence ;  nor  can  I  possibly  doubt  that,  one  and  all,  they  will  be 
brought  by  farther  investigation  or  by  the  irresistible  logic  of  events  to 
see  their  error.  In  this  connection  it  is  with  great  pleasure  that  I 
advert  to  the  fact  that  the  Honorable  John  H.  Reagan,  president  of  the 
railroad  commission  of  Texas,  has  been  brought  by  his  careful  investi- 
gations and  observations  as  a  commissioner  to  concede  that  agreements 


E  VOL  UTION  OF  AMERICAN  RAILROAD  S  YSTEM.  2  3 1 

as  to  the  division  of  competitive  traffic,  under  proper  conditions  of 
regulation,  are  just  and  beneficial  toward  the  public  interests.  This 
concession  illuminates  the  public  records  of  Mr.  Reagan,  who,  as  repre- 
sentative in  Congress  and  as  senator  of  the  United  States  from  Texas, 
threw  the  full  weight  of  his  great  influence  against  the  legalization  of 
agreements  in  regard  to  the  division  of  competitive  traffic. 

The  cause  and,  as  I  firmly  believe,  the  only  potential  cause  of  the 
popular  prejudice  against  the  agreements  as  to  the  division  of  competi- 
tive traffic  has  arisen  from  the  fact  that  to  such  agreements  was  applied 
in  the  very  beginning  the  inappropriate  and  offensive  appellation  of 
poolifig. 

It  is  manifest  that  if  agreements  as  to  the  apportionment  of  traffic 
shall  be  legalized,  they  should  be  guarded  by  all  the  provisions  of  the 
act  to  regulate  commerce  relative  to  the  publication  and  maintenance 
of  joint  rates — provisions  which,  in  the  hands  of  sensible  railroad  man  - 
agers,  would  become  efficient  instruments  of  self-government. 

ORGANIZED     MEASURES     FOR     SECURING    THE    ORDERLY    CONDUCT    OF 
THE    AMERICAN    RAILROAD    SYSTEM. 

No  organization  of  human  devisement  can  exist  as  a  forceful  entity 
in  the  absence  of  an  intelligent  directory.  The  American  railroad 
system  is  not  a  thing  which  can  run  alone.  Its  existence  involves  con- 
ventional agreements  and  cooperative  arrangements  for  the  maintenance 
of  such  agreements,  touching  almost  innumerable  matters  of  detail. 
Hence  the  federation  of  the  railroads  by  means  of  associations  of  various 
sorts  followed  as  a  necessary  step  in  the  processes  of  that  evolution  which 
was  to  bring  them  all  into  practical  unity.  Certain  of  these  federative 
organizations  are  based  upon  the  idea  of  managing  the  traffic  of  great 
geographical  areas,  while  others  take  cognizance  of  great  traffic  cur- 
rents. There  are  also  associations  which  have  for  their  object  the  man 
agement  of  through  cars — z.  <?.,  car-service  associations  ;  other  associa- 
tions have  the  management  of  through  tickets,  of  baggage  and  baggage 
checks,  etc.  There  are  besides  claim  associations  and  local  associations 
of  various  sorts.  These  associations  constitute  the  mind  or  administra- 
tive thought  of  the  American  railroad  system.  Their  function  embraces 
the  classification  of  freights,  freight  tariffs,  joint  rates,  traffic  facilities, 
the  apportionment  of  traffic,  receipts  from  traffic,  and  a  thousand  mat- 
ters of  detail  involved  in  the  administrative  management  of  a  great 
transportation  system. 

Railroad  traffic  associations  take  cognizance  of  agreements  in  regard 
to  joint  traffic  over  connecting  and  cooperative  lines,  and  also  of  agree- 
ments between  rival  lines  in  regard  to  competitive  traffic.  Such  asso- 
ciations besides  attend  to  the  enormous  work  of  adjusting  joint  traffic 
accounts  ;  that  is  to  say,  they  are  clearing-house  establishments. 

Thus  the  law  of  organic  efficiency  has  been  to  a  very  great  extent 
substituted  for  the  law  of  unrestricted  competition.  This,  of  course,  has 
involved  a  considerable  sacrifice  of  independent  corporate  power.  But 
when  men  organize  for  the  accomplishment  of  any  great  work  they  most 
always  surrender  something  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  something  which 
eludes  disassociated  effort. 

The  thing  of  chief  public  interest  attained  by  the  federation  of  the 
railroads  was  the  maintenance  of  order  in  the  conduct  of  the  internal 


2  32  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

commerce  of  the  country.  The  time  had  come  when  the  alternative 
confronted  the  people  of  this  country — the  maintenance  of  order  or  the 
maintenance  of  the  absolute  freedom  of  competition.  Order  is  not  only 
heaven's  first  law,  but  it  is  a  vital  condition  of  all  living.  Competition, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  only  a  manifestation  of  living  under  favoring  con- 
ditions. And  yet  much  of  the  reasoning  of  the  present  day  would  place 
the  maintenance  of  a  wild  and  destructive  competition  above  the  main- 
tenance of  order.  That  is  a  great  mistake.  When  competition  becomes 
so  fierce  that  it  degenerates  into  disorder  it  passes  the  acme  of  its 
possibilities  and  becomes  the  very  swoon  of  existence — the  syncope  of 
effort. 

With  the  exception  of  agreements  as  to  the  apportionment  of  com- 
petitive tariff,  all  the  self-imposed  restraints  upon  railroad  competition 
enforced  by  railroad  associations  are  now  fully  recognized  by  the  act  to 
regulate  commerce,  and  by  the  interstate  commerce  commission  as 
expressions  of  American  common  law  touching  the  subject  of  railroad 
transportation. 

THE    REGULATION    OF    COMPETITION. 

The  experience  of  centuries  prior  to  the  advent  of  the  railroad  had 
firmly  engrafted  into  the  minds  of  the  English-speaking  race  the  rule  of 
public  policy  known  as  the  freedom  of  the  highway.  By  the  freedom 
of  the  highway  is  meant  the  freedom  enjoyed  by  every  man  to  operate 
his  vehicle  of  commerce  upon  free  highways  in  competition  with  all 
other  carriers. 

As  the  regulation  of  competition  involves  a  fundamental  condition, 
under  which  the  evolution  of  the  American  railway  system  has  pro- 
ceeded, it  appears  proper  to  give  to  that  subject  some  particular  notice 
in  this  connection.  Although  the  fact  is,  and  almost  from  the  beginning 
has  been,  clearly  recognized  that  the  railroad  is  not,  and  by  virtue  of  its 
peculiar  physical  characteristics  can  never  become,  a  free  highway  of 
commerce,  yet  many  cling  tenaciously  to  the  idea  that  competition  must 
be  absolutely  unrestrained  upon  railroads  in  order  to  protect  the  public 
interests  against  unjust  discriminations  and  exorbitant  rates.  Two 
favorite  aphorisms  have  served  to  cystallize  these  ideas  in  the  public 
mind,  viz.:  First,  that  competition  is  the  life  of  trade ;  and  second,  that 
-where  combination  is  possible  competitioft  is  impossible.  The  first  of 
these  aphorisms  has  been  proved  by  the  light  of  modern  experiences  to 
be  utterly  misleading.  The  spirit  of  competitive  enterprise  is  undoubt- 
edly a  stimulus  to  action  ;  but  under  the  influences  of  the  telegraph,  the 
railroad,  and  all  the  engineery  of  modern  commerce,  experience  has 
proved  that  the  stimulus  of  competition,  like  every  other  stimulus,  may 
be  so  strong  as  to  run  to  demoralization  and  disorder.  In  the  proper 
adjustment  of  human  affairs  too  much  impetus  is^.often  found  to  be  as 
prejudicial  to  the  public  welfare  as  a  lack  of  impetus.  This  fact  is 
constantly  being  illustrated  in  those  periods  of  financial  and  commercial 
wreckage  and  stagnation  which  follow  periods  of  unduly  stimulated 
activity.  It  is  now  perfectly  clear  that  the  intense  forces  of  the  present 
day  not  only  justify  but  absolutely  demand  the  regulating  influence  of 
restraint  in  order  to  prevent  railroad  competition  from  running  to  dis- 
order, involving  the  demoralization  of  trade  and  the  ruin  of  railroad 
companies.     This  is  not  theory,  but  the  indisputable  record  of  history. 


E  VOL  UTION  OF  AMERICAN  RAIL  WAY  SYS  TEM.  233 

The  mischievous  fallacy  that  "  competition  is  the  life  of  trade  "  was 
years  ago  denounced  in  a  learned  and  elaborate  opinion  by  Judge 
Howe,*  of  the  supreme  court  of  Wisconsin,  in  the  case  of  Kellogg  v. 
Larkin  (3  Pinney  Wis.  Rep.  150). 

"  If  it  be  true,  also,  that  competition  is  the  life  of  trade,  it  may  fol- 
low such  premises  that  he  who  relaxes  competition  comniits  an  act  inju- 
rious to  trade  ;  and  not  only  so,  but  he  commits  an  overt  act  of  treason 
against  the  commonwealth.  But  I  apprehend  it  is  not  true  that  com- 
petition is  the  life  of  trade.  On  the  contrary,  that  maxim  is  the  least 
reliable  of  the  host  which  may  be  picked  up  in  every  market-place.  It 
is,  in  fact,  the  shibboleth  of  mere  gambling  speculation,  and  is  hardly 
entitled  to  take  rank  as  an  axiom  in  the  jurisprudence  of  the  country. 
I  believe  universal  observation  will  attest  that  for  the  last  quarter  of  a 
century  competition  in  trade  has  caused  more  individual  distress,  if  not 
more  public  injury,  than  the  want  of  competition." 

This  misleading  aphorism,  "  Competition  is  the  life  of  trade,"  is 
refuted  by  every  labor  organization  and  every  trade  organization  in 
restraint  of  destructive  competition — organizations  which  stand  for  the 
protection  of  labor  and  for  the  protection  of  commerce. 

The  second  aphorism  above  quoted,  "  Where  combiftatioft  is  possible 
co7npetitio7i  is  impossible,''  is  also  thoroughly  exploded.  Combination 
is  the  most  pronounced  symptom  of  our  refined  and  highly  organized 
civilization.  By  it  the  largest  results  in  science,  in  art,  in  trade,  in 
transportation  and  in  education  are  being  evoked.  A  prevailing  fault 
of  the  present  day  is  the  failure  to  discriminate  between  combinations 
for  good  and  combinations  for  evil — between  combinations  which  pro- 
tect legitimate  competition  and  promote  progress,  and  combinations 
which  stifle  competition  and  arrest  progress.  Experience  also  clearly 
proves  that  the  American  railroad  system,  that  vast  combination  which 
is  neither  the  result  of  legislative  nor  of  railroad  corporate  devisement, 
but  the  manifest  outcome  of  an  evolution  beyond  all  human  prescience, 
is  a  combination  thoroughly  beneficent  and  regulative  of  evils,  and  in 
the  most  complete  sense  promotive  of  the  public  interests.  This  is  so 
clear  to  the  comprehension  of  every  intelligent  observer  that  any 
attempt  to  prove  it  would  be  the  merest  superfluity  of  speech. 

In  the  face  of  all  these  lessons  of  experience  and  of  sound  reason 
as  to  the  necessity  of  restraint  upon  the  absolute  freedom  of  railroad 
transportation,  the  progress  of  reform  has  been  from  the  beginning  and 
is  today  impeded  by  a  persistent  adherence  to  the  idea  of  the  absolute 
freedom  of  competition  among  railroads.  But  state  and  national  rail- 
road regulation  stand  as  a  public  protest  against  such  views,  and  all 
experience  clearly  proves  that  if  the  various  restraints  which  are  now 
imposed  upon  the  absolute  freedom  of  railroad  transportation  were  to 
be  suddenly  abandoned  the  commerce  of  the  country  would  be  thrown 
into  the  direst  confusion. 

Notwithstanding  the  faith  reposed  by  the  present  and  by  past  gen- 
erations in  the  efiicacy  of  competition,  the  doctrine  has  prevailed  for 
nearly  two  centuries,  as  an  element  of  English  law,  that  competition  is 
and  ought  to  be  subject  to  just  and  wholesome  restraints. 

In  the  case  of  Mitchell  v.  Reynolds,  decided  about  the  year    171 1, 


♦Afterwards  Senator  Howe,  of  Wisconsin. 


234  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

and  reported  in  "Smith's  Leading  Cases,"  the  policy  ot  the  law  ot  Eng- 
land at  that  time  is  stated  as  follows  : 

"  The  present  doctrine  is  that  while  contracts  in  total  restraint  of 
trade  are  void,  yet  if  the  restraints  imposed  be  partial,  reasonable  and 
founded  on  good  consideration,  they  are  valid  and  will  be  enforced." 

This  doctrine  has  been  time  and  again  asserted  judicially  in  this 
country,  and  it  has  become  a  thoroughly  fixed  principle  of  American 
law. 

GOVERNMENTAL    REGULATION    OF    THE    RAILROADS. 

It  was  impossible  that  such  a  mighty  evolution  of  commercial  and 
transportation  interests  as  that  already  described  could  have  taken  place 
in  this  land  of  liberty,  regulated  by  law,  without  giving  rise  to  some 
manifestations  of  governmental  power.  It  became  necessary  not  only 
to  impose  restraints  upon  evils  but  also  to  give  legal  effect  to  practices 
and  usages  established  through  the  interaction  of  forces  and  proved  by 
the  lessons  of  experience  to  be  beneficial  and  necessary.  The  political 
solution  of  the  so-called  "  railroad  problem"  has  for  a  generation 
harassed  the  legislative  and  the  judicial  mind  of  this  country.  Many 
carefully  wrought-out  plans  and  expedients  for  correcting  real  and  sup- 
posed evils  have  been  devised,  a  large  proportion  of  which  plans  have 
resulted  in  failure.  But  under  all  the  difficulties  which  surround  the 
task  that  is  not  a  strange  thing.  As  the  explorer  approaches  the  harbor 
of  a  strange  coast,  he  finds  where  the  channel  is  by  running  into  shal- 
low water. 

As  this  paper  treats  of  the  railroads  only  from  a  national  point  of 
view,  reference  to  governmental  regulation  must  be  confined  to  national 
legislation. 

All  that  there  is  in  the  interstate  commerce  act  of  February  4,  1889, 
in  the  nature  of  beneficent  regulation  is  based  either  upon  common  law 
requirements  applicable  to  the  railroad  or  upon  usages  proved  to  be  whole- 
some and  proper  in  the  course  of  the  evolution  of  the  American  railroad 
system.  The  provisions  of  the  statute  which  relate  to  the  prohibition  of 
unreasonable  rates  and  unjust  discriminations  are  simply  re-enactments 
of  time-honored  rules  of  the  common  law.  The  provisions  which  relate 
to  securing  shipments  on  direct  and  most  convenient  lines  were  already 
in  force  as  rules  of  railroad  associations.  The  propriety  of  this  latter 
rule  of  conduct  was  clearly  enunciated  as  long  ago  as  the  year  1874,  in 
the  report  of  the  investigating  committee  appointed  by  the  Pennsylva- 
nia railroad  company.  That  report  clearly  announced  the  doctrine  that 
railroad  companies  recognize  their  true  interest  in  furnishing  ample 
facilities,  and  by  refraining  from  unwise  efforts  to  defeat  the  interests  of 
the  shipper  in  the  matter  of  attempting  to  dictate  the  route  or  des- 
tination of  traffic,  that  being  determined  mainly  by  elements  other  than 
the  way  of  carriage. 

The  provisions  of  the  sixth  section  of  the  interstate  commerce  act, 
relating  to  joint  rates,  the  maintenance  of  agreed  rates,  the  publication 
of  rates,  and  ample  notice  of  intended  changes  in  rates,  were,  prior  to 
the  enactment  cardinal  features  of  the  regulations  established  by  rail- 
road associations.  It  was  also  the  fundamental  object  of  such  associa- 
tions to  prevent  all  forms  of  rate-cutting  now  forbidden  by  the  inter- 
state commerce  act.      Outside  of  these  wholesome  regulations  by  the 


E  VOL  UTION  OF  AMERICAN  RAILROAD  S YSTEM.         235 

provisions  of  the  act  to  regulate  commerce  may  be  described  as  quasi- 
judicial  and,  in  a  qualified  sense,  adminstrative. 

COMMERCIAL    ENVIRONMENT    OF    THE    AMERICAN    RAILROAD    SYSTEM. 

It  is  impossible  to  arrive  at  a  clear  view  of  that  interaction  of  forces 
whereby  the  American  railroad  system  has  been  evolved  without  at 
least  some  brief  reference  to  the  influences  which  have  been  exerted  by 
the  commercial  forces  of  the  country.  This  wonderful  system  of  trans- 
portation brought  every  centre  of  trade  and  of  industry  into  close  com- 
petition, and  also  provided  a  means  whereby  the  product  of  every  farm 
and  every  mine  may  be  speedily  placed  at  the  gates  of  commerce. 
The  joint  traffic  arrangements  entered  into  among  railroad  companies 
had  corresponding  commercial  expressions  in  through  bills  of  lading 
and  other  commercial  arrangements,  associating  transportation  in  vitally 
important  particulars  with  trade  and  with  the  finance  of  commerce. 
All  this,  in  connection  with  the  facilities  for  commercial  intelligence 
afforded  by  the  telegraph  and  the  public  press,  has  both  directly  and 
indirectly  created  a  competition  of  commercial  forces,  the  intensity  and 
coercive  force  of  which  has  never  before  experienced  on  this  planet. 
The  tendency  of  this  far  reaching  and  instant  competition  has  been 
irresistibly  toward  a  parity  of  values  and  toward  a  constant  reduction  in 
prices.  This  has  reacted  upon  the  railroads  as  an  absolute  limitation 
upon  rate-making  which  no  traffic  manager  can  resist.  For  example, 
if  the  price  of  wheat  in  Chicago  is  ninety  cents  and  in  New  York  one 
dollar  and  ten  cents  a  bushel,  the  cost  of  transportation  must  be  somewhat 
less  than  twenty  cents  in  order  to  insure  the  movement  of  wheat. 

There  is  no  popular  fallacy  more  misleading  than  the  assumption 
that  the  railroad  managers  of  the  country  exercise  a  very  wide  range  of 
discretion  in  the  matter  of  rate-making.  In  spite  of  every  expedient 
adopted  by  the  companies  to  keep  rates  up,  they  have  fallen,  while  traffic 
has  increased.  This  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  the  average  charge  per 
ton  per  mile  on  eighteen  of  the  principal  railroads  of  the  country  fell  from 
2.101  cents  in  1872  to  .868  in  1891,  a  decrease  of  60  per  cent,  while  the 
tonnage  carried  more  than  doubled  during  that  period.  When  the  Win- 
dom  senate  committee  on  "  transportation  routes  to  the  seaboard"  began 
its  work  in  the  year  1873,  ^^e  average  all-rail  rate  for  the  transportation 
of  wheat  from  Chicago  to  New  York  was  33.5  cents  a  bushel,  but  during 
the  year  1892  it  was  only  14.23  cents  a  bushel.  That  committee 
devoted  its  attention  particularly  to  the  possibilities  of  cheap  transpor- 
tation by  water.  In  the  year  1872  the  average  total  charge  for  trans- 
porting a  bushel  of  wheat  from  Chicago  to  New  York  city  by  lake  and 
canal  was  24.47  cents  a  bushel.  The  committee  concluded  that  if  the 
cost  of  transporting  wheat  from  Chicago  to  New  York  by  water  could 
be  reduced  to  about  18  cents  per  bushel  cheap  transportation  would  be 
fully  secured  independently  of  railroad  transportation.  But  during  the 
year  1892  the  total  charge  for  transporting  wheat  from  Chicago  to  New 
York  by  lake  and  canal  was  reduced  to  5.61  cents  per  bushel,  and,  as 
before  stated,  the  average  rail  rate  was  reduced  to  14.23  cents.  Such 
reduction  in  the  rates  charged  on  railroads  have  been  very  largely  the 
result  of  the  competition  of  commercial  forces  operative  through  rival 
transportation  lines.  The  reduction  of  freight  charges  between  the 
west  and  the  Atlantic  seaboard  is  also,  as  we  all  know,  due  very  largely 


236  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

to  the  marvelous  reduction  in  the  cost  of  transportation  b}'  lake,  Erie 
canal  and  Hudson  river.  This  has  been  affected  in  part  by  the  gener- 
ous policy  adopted  by  the  State  of  New  York  in  making  the  canals  of 
that  state  free  of  tolls  by  imposing  a  tax  of  over  nine  hundred  thousand 
dollars  a  5-ear  upon  the  people  of  that  great  state.  The  railroad  com- 
panies have  been  able  to  live  under  such  constraint  upon  them  only  by 
physical  improvements  in  the  construction  of  railroads  and  their  equip- 
ment, and  by  labor-saving  devices  and  other  economies  introduced 
in  the  operation  of  railroads. 

The  influence  which  commercial  forces  necessarily  exert  upon  trans- 
portation charges  may  also  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  the  value  of 
goods  transported  on  railroads  each  year  is  about  three  times  the  value 
of  all  the  railroad  properties  of  the  country  and  at  least  thirty  times  the 
total  railroad  receipts  each  year  from  freight  traffic.  From  these  facts 
it  is  evident  that  the  commercial  forces  of  the  country  exert  a  prepon- 
derating influence  not  only  over  rates  but  also  over  the  movement  of 
traffic.  In  a  word,  the  course  of  the  internal  commerce  of  the  country 
is  today  mainly  determined  by  commercial  forces.  The  interaction  of 
these  forces  is  manifest  in  the  fierce  struggle  of  rival  cities  and  of  rival 
productive  areas — in  the  competition  of  soil  with  soil,  of  mine  with  mine, 
and  of  industry  with  industry.  Then  descending  to  the  detail  of  rail- 
road traffic  there  is  the  struggle  of  individual  shippers,  chiefly  the  larger 
shippers,  to  secure  unjustly  discriminating  rates  in  their  own  favor,  while 
at  the  same  time  the  competition  of  rival  railroads  through  their  com- 
plex arrangements  of  soliciting  agencies  and  the  practical  abrogating 
of  the  central  rate-making  power  has  had  a  tendency  to  render  the  whole 
subject  of  making  and  maintaining  just  and  equitable  rates  absolutely 
impossible  in  the  absence  of  wholesome  and  just  restraints  upon  the 
evils  already  described. 

THE    AMERICAN     RAILROAD    SYSTEM — ITS     GENESIS     AND     EVOLUTION. 

Thus  far  attention  has  been  directed  to  the  extension  of  railroads  in 
the  United  States,  the  vast  and  varied  commercial  and  industrial  inter- 
ests which  it  has  been  the  means  of  creating,  and  the  evils  which  have 
been  encountered,  and  in  a  great  degree  overcome,  in  adjusting  this 
potential  agency  of  transportation  to  the  commercial,  industrial,  social, 
and  political  interests  of  the  country.  This  grand  achievement,  how- 
ever, is  mainly  the  result  of  an  evolution,  unobserved  in  its  processes 
until  recognized  in  its  splendid  consummation, — the  American  railroad 
system. 

Thirty-five  years  ago  the  railroads  of  the  United  States  were  oper- 
ated as  separate  and  independent  highways  of  commerce.  A  dozen 
different  track  gauges  were  in  use.  Besides,  the  bare  idea  of  connect- 
ing the  tracks  of  different  companies  having  a  terminus  in  the  same 
town  was  repelled  by  railroad  managers  as  something  in  the  nature  of 
an  entangling  alliance,  fraught  with  complications  and  administrative 
difficulties  which  had  better  be  avoided.  The  drayman  and  the  forward- 
ing merchant  also  asserted  their  right  to  live,  and  in  favoring  the  trans- 
fer of  freights  the  railroad  companies  had  respect  for  such  opposition. 
Different  gauges  were  adopted  in  many  instances  for  the  express  pur- 
pose of  preventing  "the  carriage  of  freights  from  being,  and  being 
treated  as,  one  continuous  carriage  from  place  of  shipment  to  the  place 


EVOLUTION  OF  AMERICAN  RAILROAD  SYSTEM.  237 

of  destination,"  a  practice  now  treated  by  the  interstate  commerce  act 
as  a  public  offence  (see  section  7).  One  of  the  latest  and  perhaps  most 
notable  instances  of  the  policy  of  breaking  gauge  for  the  specific  pur- 
pose of  securing  to  a  city  the  commercial  advantages  which  that  exped- 
ient was  supposed  to  afford  was  that  of  the  Cincinnati  Southern  railroad, 
an  important  line,  336  miles  in  length,  built  by  the  city  of  Cincinnati, 
and  completed  about  the  year  1880.  The  cars  of  different  companies 
were  also  so  differently  constructed  as  not  to  be  easily  hauled  together 
in  trains. 

But  the  social,  commercial,  postal,  and  military  necessities  of  the  age 
rapidly  brushed  aside  all  obstacles  to  the  formation  of  that  great  system 
of  railroad  transportation  which  is  today  unto  the  traveller  and  the  ship- 
per as  one  instrumentality  of  transportation,  embracing  nearly  200,000 
miles  of  track,  administered  and  operated  as  though  by  one  central 
authority.  This  wonderful  organic  development  has  involved  connected 
tracks,  a  common  track  gauge,  union  depots,  through  rates,  the  uniform 
classification  of  commodities,  rate  agreements,  prorating,  through  tickets, 
related  time  schedules,  the  unimpeded  passage  of  freight,  passenger, 
express,  and  postal  cars  and  locomotives  over  the  tracks  of  different 
companies,  and  to  a  considerable  extent  the  employment  of  operatives 
in  the  pay  of  one  company  upon  the  lines  of  other  companies.  Each 
company  has  also  become,  in  ten  thousand  instances,  the  agent  of  many 
other  companies  for  the  sale  of  tickets,  the  collection  of  freight  moneys, 
and  the  procurement  of  traffic.  The  movement  in  favor  of  a  common 
automatic  car-coupler,  of  which  movement  Hon.  Edward  A.  Moseley, 
secretary  of  the  interstate  commerce  commission,  has  been  the  most 
conspicuous  proponent  and  advocate,  was  suggested  and  has  been  car- 
ried to  a  point  at  which  success  seems  to  be  assured,  by  none  other  than 
humane  purposes  toward  railroad  employes  ;  but  this  common  interlock- 
ing connection  between  freight  cars  is  exerting  an  important  'nfluence 
toward  securing  tbe  perfect  physical  unity  of  the  American  railroad 
system. 

The  practical  unification  of  the  great  work  of  transportation  by  rail 
has  come  about  not  advisedly,  or  as  the  result  of  design  or  forecast  on 
the  part  of  the  companies,  but  as  the  outcome  of  an  evolution.  Obsta- 
cles to  the  union  of  lines  and  the  corelation  of  traffic  interests  which  at 
first  appeared  insuperable  have  been  swept  aside  by  an  imperious  force 
of  circumstances.  Moreover,  every  effective  measure  of  restraint  and 
every  instrumentality  which  has  advanced  the  efficiency  of  the  railroad 
as  an  instrument  of  commerce  seems  by  an  imperious  law  of  develop- 
ment to  have  tended  toward  the  evolution  of  the  American  railroad 
system. 

During  this  entire  period  of  progress  railroad  managers  have  been 
divided  into  two  schools  in  regard  to  the  new  development.  For  years 
a  majority  opposed,  and  a  minority  favored  it.  Some  of  the  stronger 
companies  attempted  to  resist  the  movement  by  the  consolidation  and 
extension  of  their  lines,  assuming  that  thus  they  might  be  enabled  to 
remain  a  law  unto  themselves.  But  in  time  they  too  were  forced  to 
acknowledge  the  compulsions  of  the  interdependent  relationships  which 
were  slowly  but  surely  evolving  one  vast  national  railroad  system.  The 
peculiar  environment  of  each  road,  of  course,  had  much  to  do  with  the 
detail    of   forming    connections   with    coterminous   roads.     But   above 


238  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

every  conceivable  objection,  and  every  possible  obstruction,  there  arose 
an  imperious  commercial  and  social  demand  for  a  united  American 
railroad  service.  Upon  the  outbreak  of  the  late  war,  which  was  to 
determine  the  question  of  maintaining  our  national  unity,  military  neces- 
sity demanded  through  cars  and  through  trains  over  the  lines  of  differ- 
ent companies.  The  tracks  of  railroads  having  terminals  on  opposite 
sides  of  cities  were  accordingly  connected  by  lines  constructed  through  or 
around  such  cities  in  order  that  men  and  munitions  of  war  might  pass 
unimpeded.  The  military  demand  for  an  expedited  postal  service  also 
gave  rise  to  the  railway  post-office,  by  which  means  the  work  of  assort- 
ing and  distributing  the  mails  is  now  done  chiefly  on  trains  in  motion. 
Then  the  sleeping-car  came  in  vogue,  with  a  rapidly  developed  and 
imperative  demand  for  connected  tracks  and  through  service  over  the 
lines  of  two,  three,  and  four  or  more  different  companies.  It  was  in 
vain  that  conservative  railroad  men  protested  against  the  loss  of  inde- 
pendence and  the  inconveniences  and  vexations  incident  to  forced  part- 
nerships with  companies  and  with  railroad  officials  whom  they  would 
gladly  have  shunned.  The  most  serious  difficulties  arose  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  through  or  interchangeable  freight-car  service.  Some- 
times cars,  when  thus  employed,  far  from  the  road  upon  which  they 
belonged,  were  left  standing  for  days  and  even  weeks  on  side  tracks  or 
kept  in  use  without  any  authority  or  compensation  for  such  service.  In 
many  instances  cars  were  thus  lost,  and  in  certain  cases  actually  stolen 
by  being  repainted  with  the  name  of  the  appropriating  company  substi- 
tuted for  that  of  the  company  to  which  they  belonged.  But  despite  all 
these  inconveniences  the  efforts  to  prevent  a  common  use  of  freight  cars 
was  futile.  In  time  the  evils  just  alluded  to  were  in  a  large  degree 
overcome  by  car-service  agents  of  the  various  railroad  associations  and 
through  the  more  recently  formed  car-service  associations. 

In  treating  of  a  united  American  railroad  system,  I  cannot  fail  to 
make  special  mention  of  the  inestimable  service  performed  by  the  car- 
service  associations  of  the  United  States.  The  first  association  of  this 
sort  was  organized  October  i,  1887,  at  Omaha,  Nebraska,  by  Mr.  E. 
Dickinson,  general  manager  of  the  Union  Pacific  railway  company,  Mr. 
G.  W.  Holdridge,  general  manager  of  the  Burlington  &  Missouri  River 
railroad,  and  Mr.  J.  M.  Eddy,  superintendent  of  the  Missouri  Pacific 
railway.  Mr.  E.  E.  Hill  was  the  first  car-service  manager.  From  this 
beginning  there  have  sprung  thirty-nine  car-service  associations,  whose 
field  of  operations  embraces  almost  the  entire  country.  The  common 
rule  of  these  associations  is  to  allow  a  car  to  stand  48  hours  for  loading 
and  unloading,  and  after  that  to  charge  for  car  service  at  the  rate  of 
one  dollar  a  day.  The  results  attained  by  these  associations  is  indicated 
by  the  fact  that  prior  to  their  organization  the  detention  of  cars 
amounted  to  5.85  days  for  each  car  handled,  whereas  since  their  organ- 
ization the  detention  has  been  only  1.45  days — a  saving  at  each  loading 
and  unloading  of  4.4odays.  Asthe  total  numberof  cars  handled  during 
the  year  1892  was  1 1,108,487,  the  total  number  of  car-days  service  saved 
was  48,877,342,  which  at  $1.50  a  day  amounts  to  $73,316,013.  Besides 
this  large  saving  to  the  companies,  they  are  enabled  to  give  the  public 
better  service,  and  of  course  also  to  afford  a  cheaper  service.  The 
courts,  recognizing  the  fact  that  "  the  life  of  the  railroads  is  in  the  roll- 
ing stock,"  have  fully  and  completely  recognized  the  legal  force  of  the 


EVOLUTION  OF  AMERICAN  RAILROAD  SYSTEM.  239 

rules  and  regulations  made  by  car-service  associations.  Perhaps  there 
is  no  other  feature  of  the  cooperative  relationships  which  have  sprung 
up  among  the  railroads  of  the  country  which  so  strikingly  illustrates  the 
organic  unity  of  the  American  railroad  system  as  the  work  performed 
by  car-service  associations. 

There  is  another  important  organization  whose  work  has  constituted 
an  important  feature  of  the  evolution  of  the  American  railroad  system. 
I  refer  to  the  American  railway  association,  of  which  Mr.  H.  S.  Haines, 
of.  New  York,  is  now  and  has  been  president  since  the  year  1887.  This 
association  includes  in  its  membership  all  the  principal  railroad  com- 
panies of  the  country.  Its  object  is  the  development  and  solution  of 
problems  connected  with  railroad  management  in  the  United  States.  It 
is  a  deliberative  body  without  any  executive  authority,  and  endowed 
only  with  the  function  of  recommending  the  adoption  of  its  conclusions. 
But  its  influence  and  power  for  good  has  been  very  great,  and  all  its 
work  has  tended  toward  a  more  thorough  and  beneficent  organization 
of  the  American  railroad  system. 

These  associations  and  other  cooperative  arrangements  did  not  spring 
out  of  the  ground.  They  are  the  result  of  the  careful  investigation  and 
strenuous  effort  of  brainy  men  whose  lives  have  been  controlled  by  the 
best  and  most  forceful  inspirations  of  human  progress. 

Finally,  in  the  face  of  untold  opposition  and  frictional  resistances, 
the  American  railroad  system  emerged  in  its  present  form  and  magnifi- 
cent potentialities  for  good. 

The  social,  commercial,  industrial,  and  political  forces  of  the  country 
have  beckoned  the  companies  on  to  this  unity  of  transportation  facilities, 
as  absolute  and  as  imperative  in  its  manifestations  as  is  the  political 
unity  which  binds  towns,  counties,  and  states  into  a  nation  which  is  one 
and  indivisible.  State  governments  also  have  extended  solicitous  invi- 
tations to  railroad  companies  to  construct  their  lines  across  state  bound- 
aries in  order  to  form  such  connections,  and  in  so  doing  to  exercise  freely 
one  of  the  most  sacred  attributes  of  governmental  sovereignty — the  right 
of  eminent  domain. 

Twenty-seven  years  ago  a  concensus  of  the  social,  political  and  com- 
mercial forces  of  the  country  led  to  a  statutory  enactment  by  the  national 
government  which  legalized  the  physical  combination  of  railroad 
interests  just  described.  I  refer  to  the  act  of  Congress  approved  June 
15,  1866.  This  statute,  the  most  important  concerning  the  internal  com- 
merce of  the  United  States  which  has  ever  been  enacted  by  Congress, 
was  simply  a  legal  recognition  of  something  even  then  existent  as  an 
organic  characteristic  of  the  transportation  and  commercial  interests  of 
the  country.  In  a  word,  it  was  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  statutory 
approval  of  an  institution  and  of  usages  which  had  become  expressions 
of  the  commercial  and  social  life  of  the  nation.  The  act  in  question 
reads  as  follows : 

"An  act  to  facilitate  commercial,  postal,  and  military  communica- 
tion among  the  states. 

"  Whereas  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  confers  upon  Con- 
gress, in  express  terms,  the  power  to  regulate  commerce  among  the 
several  states,  to  establish  post-roads  and  to  raise  and  support  armies  ; 
therefore, 

''Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the 


240  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

United  States  in  Congress  assembled,  That  every  railroad  compan}'  in 
the  United  States  whose  road  is  operated  by  steam,  its  successors  and 
assigns,  be,  and  is  hereby  authorized  to  carry  upon  and  over  its  road, 
boats,  bridges,  and  ferries  all  passengers,  troops,  government  supplies, 
mails,  freight,  and  property  on  their  way  from  any  state  to  another 
state,  and  to  receive  compensation  therefor,  and  to  connect  with  roads 
of  other  states,  so  as  to  form  continuous  lines  for  the  transportation  of 
the  same  to  the  place  of  its  destination. 


"Section  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  Congress  may  at  any 
time  alter,  amend,  or  repeal  this  act," 

This  act  of  Congress  fully  and  explicitly  authorizes  all  the  railroad 
combinations  and  cooperative  arrangements  which  I  have  just  described. 
In  form  and  substance  it  is  permissive  and  clearly  in  the  nature  of  a 
grant  of  power.  It  also  expresses  an  implied  contract,  viz.,  a  duty  to 
be  performed  in  consideration  of  a  privilege  granted.  Therefore  it  may 
be  properly  regarded  as  The  charter  of  the  American  railroad  system. 

That  it  had  this  significance  in  the  minds  of  its  framers  is  clearly 
indicated  by  the  fact  that  out  of  abundant  caution  it  was  provided  in 
the  second  section  "  that  Congress  may  at  any  time  alter,  amend,  or 
repeal  this  act."  This  latter  provision  was  apparently  prompted  by  a 
fear,  even  then  entertained  by  many,  that  such  intimate  combinations 
among  the  railroads  might,  in  the  course  of  their  development,  prove 
detrimental  to  the  public  interests.  That  apprehension,  however,  no 
longer  has  place  in  the  minds  of  the  American  people. 

But  the  American  railroad  system  has  a  higher  charter  even  than 
this  statutory  enactment,  and  that  is  the  very  charter  of  government 
itself — ^the  will  of  the  people,  for  this  act  formulates  at  once  the  public 
needs  and  the  public  sense  of  what  is  necessary  and  proper  concerning 
railroad  transportation  in  this  country. 

The  beneficent  character  of  the  act  of  June  15,  1866,  has  been 
abundantly  demonstrated  by  the  lessons  of  experience,  and  there  is 
today  no  purpose  more  firmly  fixed  in  the  minds  of  the  American  peo- 
ple than  that  our  internal  commerce  shall  have  free  and  uninterrupted 
passage.  And  it  is  a  source  of  national  pride  that  today  the  railroads 
of  the  country  do  present  themselves  to  the  traveler  and  the  shipper 
practically  as  one  vast  system  of  transportation,  peerless  in  magnitude 
and  efficiency. 

The  growing  conviction  in  the  public  mind  as  to  what  is  right  and 
necessary  regarding  the  American  railroad  system  has  found  vigorous 
expression  in  provisions  of  the  interstate  commerce  act  of  February  4, 
1887.  This  act  is  from  beginning  to  ending  based  upon  the  idea  of  an 
existent  American  railroad  system,  its  needs  and  possibilities.  Although 
the  legislator  may  not  have  had  clearly  in  mind  this  particular  signifi- 
cance of  the  statute,  such  inadvertence  illustrates  the  fact  that  in  the 
processes  of  an  evolution  men  usually  build  better  than  they  know.  That 
the  interstate  commerce  act  was  based  upon  the  conditions  imposed  by 
the  law  of  the  American  railroad  system  is  clearly  indicated  by  sections 
3,  7  and  10  of  that  act,  which,  stripped  of  legal  amplification,  are  as 
follows : 

A  (Sec.  3).  Facilities  for  interchange  of  traffic.     Every  common  car- 


E  VOL  UTIO/V  OF  AMERICAN  RAILROAD  S YSTEM.  2  4 1 

rier  shall  afford  all  reasonable,  proper  and  equal  facilities  for  the  inter- 
change of  traffic  between  their  respective  lines  and  those  connecting 
therewith. 

B  (Sec.  7).  Conti7iuous  carriage.  It  shall  be  unlawful  for  any  com- 
mon carrier  subject  to  the  provisions  of  this  act  to  enter  into  any  com- 
bination, contract  or  agreement,  expressed  or  implied,  to  prevent  the 
carriage  of  freights  from  being  continuous  from  the  place  of  shipment 
to  the  place  of  destination. 

C  (Sec.  10).  Penalties  for  violation.  Any  common  carrier  subject 
to  the  provisions  of  this  act,  or  any  director  or  officer  thereof,  or  any 
receiver,  trustee,  lessee,  agent,  or  person  employed  by  such  corporation, 
who  alone  or  with  any  other  corporation,  company,  person  or  party  shall 
wilfully  do  or  cause  to  be  done  anything  in  this  act  prohibited,  or  who 
shall  wilfully  omit  to  do  anything  in  this  act  required  to  be  done,  shall, 
upon  conviction  thereof,  be  subject  to  a  fine  of  not  to  exceed  five  thou- 
sand dollars. 

These  provisions  of  the  interstate  commerce  act  clearly  define  cer- 
tain commercial  objects  which  the  charter  of  the  American  railroad 
system  of  June  15,  1866,  was  intended  to  secure,  and  they  simply  formu- 
late and  give  the  sanction  of  law  to  the  already  evolved  law  of  that 
system. 

When  "The  Act  to  Regulate  Commerce,"  commonly  known  as 
"The  Interstate  Commerce  Act,"  took  effect,  July  5,  1887,  the  consti- 
tutional power  conferred  upon  Congress  of  regulating  "commerce 
among  the  states"  had  been  practically  dormant  for  a  period  of  98 
years.  Prior  to  the  enactment  of  that  statute  the  American  railway 
system  had  been  evolved,  and  it  had  become  the  grandest  system  of 
transportation  ever  seen  on  this  globe  in  point  of  speedy  carriage,  the 
facilities  afforded  for  the  distribution  of  freights,  regularity  of  move- 
ment, safety,  cost  of  transportation,  and  general  efficiency.  The  prac- 
tical duty  now  devolving  upon  the  legislator  in  devising  a  general 
scheme  of  railroad  legislation  is  that  of  building  up  a  body  of  statute 
law,  based  upon  and  voicing  the  tendencies,  the  needs  and  the  possi- 
bilities of  the  evolved  law  of  the  American  railroad  system.  The  inter- 
state commerce  act  inaugurated  such  legislation. 

By  the  lessons  of  a  hard  experience,  involving  the  consideration  of 
many  an  asserted  "solution  of  the  whole  question,"  we  have  come  to 
recognize  in  the  American  railroad  system  a  fresh  illustration  of  that 
cardinal  principle  of  free  government,  that  the  evolutionary  experiences 
of  human  society  furnish  the  surest  foundation  of  beneficent  law  and  of 
good  government.  Hence  it  appears  that  the  chief  duty  of  the  railroad 
manager,  of  the  student  of  our  transportation  interests,  and  of  the  Amer- 
ican legislator,  in  all  attempts  to  advance  the  efficiency  of  the  American 
railroad  system  and  to  conform  it  to  the  public  needs,  is  to  study  the 
course  of  its  evolution,  and,  if  possible,  to  catch  the  drift  of  its  best 
tendencies.  This,  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  must  always  be  a  tenta- 
tive work.  Disappointment  may  overwhelm  many  a  sincere  effort,  for 
every  investigation  and  every  sincere  effort  at  reform  is  always  more  or 
less  in  the  nature  of  groping  one's  way  out  of  the  darkness  into  the 
light.  So  the  work  must  go  on,  and  it  will  probably  be  realized  fifty 
years  hence  by  men  engaged  in  such  practical  studies  as  those  which 
now  command  our  thoughts  that  "there  is  a  divinity  which  shapes  our 


242  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

ends,"  and  that  unless  men  "build  better  than  they  know  they  will  build 
in  vain."  And  I  doubt  not  that  the  most  effective  workers  in  the  great 
task  of  adjusting  the  railroads  to  the  public  interests  will  be  found  to  be 
among  those  who,  in  the  language  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  have  "learned  to 
submit  themselves  to  the  lessons  of  experience  and  to  the  lessons  of  the 
hour."  • 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  RAILWAYS  ON  THE  SETTLEMENT  AND 
DEVELOPMENT  OF   NEW   COUNTRIES. 


GEORGE      P.      NEELE,      SUPERINTENDENT     OF      THE      LINE,     LONDON    & 
NORTHWESTERN    RAILWAY,    LONDON,  ENGLAND. 


As  the  whole  of  my  time  as  a  railway  officer  has  been  devoted  to 
work  in  the  old  country,  and  in  settled  populous  parts  of  the  old 
country,  I  must  plead  entire  ignorance  of  any  practical  personal  knowl- 
edge of  the  subject  so  kindly  but  unaccountably  allotted  to  me.  So  far 
ks  railways  are  concerned  perhaps  even  England  may  be  considered  a 
new  country,  for  the  jubilee  of  the  opening  of  the  first  line  of  passenger 
railway  has  but  recently  been  celebrated,  and  a  glance  at  the  maps  of 
railways  in  1848  and  in  i8q3  will  show  to  what  an  extent  the  growth 
has  taken  place. 

You  railway  gentlemen  of  America  will  see  at  once  how  little  new 
country  there  is  here  for  any  progressive  Alexander  to  conquer.  The 
country  is  gridironed  with  railways,  and  in  the  eye  of  the  railway  super- 
intendent all  these  diagrams  are  instinct  with  movement,  on  each  of 
them  moment  by  moment  a  constant  current  of  locomotive  energy  is  at 
work — here  an  express  clearing  its  50  to  60  miles  an  hour,  there  a  stop- 
ping passenger  train,  here  a  rival  express  tearing  on  its  rampant  course, 
there  a  series  of  goods  and  freight  trains,  mineral  trains,  fish  trains, 
cattle  trains,  workmen's  trains,  ballast  trains,  season  ticketholder's 
trains,  excursion  trains,  mail  trains,  parcel  trains.  Each  town  on  the 
map  contributes  its  contingent,  every  dockyard  pours  out  its  traffic, 
every  mine  and  quarry,  every  mill,  every  factory  adds  its  quota  to  the 
unceasing  stream,  day  by  day  the  torrent  rolls  on  and  night  by  night 
exhibits  well-nigh  an  equal  flow. 

The  nearest  analogy  I  can  suggest  may  be  found  in  watching  by 
microscopic  aid  the  blood  circulation  in  the  distended  foot  of  a  frog,  a 
sight  which  occasionally  is  afforded  as  a  contribution  towards  an  even- 
ing's entertainment  ;  the  constant  flow  of  globules  along  the  arteries 
and  veins  represents  the  continued  movement  of  the  various  trains 
along  the  wonderful  ramifications  and  ganglions  of  railway  tracks 
represented  by  the  map  of  railways. 

With  such  a  frequent  and  unintermitting  flow  of  traffic  it  has  been 
my  fortune  to  stand  connected.  Originally  for  all  traffic  north  of  Lon- 
don the  terminus  of  "  Euston  "  was  sufficient;  alike  to  York,  to  Derby, 
to  Birmingham,  to  I  iverpool,  Manchester  and  Scotland,  "  Euston  "  was 


INFLUENCE  OE  RAILWAYS  ON  NEW  COUNTRIES.        243 

the  point  of  departure.  Rapidly  the  thirst  for  railway  extension  ren- 
dered such  a  state  of  things  impossible  ;  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the 
left  new  systems  of  railways  sprung  up,  competition  was  hailed  by  pub- 
lic acclaim,  and  towns  which  at  first  had  disliked  the  approach  of  rail- 
ways had  endeavored  to  stop  their  access  to  their  borders,  had  forced 
the  lines  to  adopt  remote  locations  instead  of  central  positions  for  their 
city  stations,  now  pursued  an  entirely  different  course  of  action.  Par- 
liament granted  to  any  combination  of  shareholders  the  right  to  make 
lines  which  had  the  slightest  pretense  to  occupy  a  business  sphere,  and 
thus  most  of  the  large  towns  in  the  United  Kingdom  have  two  or  three 
or  more  companies  ready  and  willing  to  place  their  accommodation  at 
the  service  of  the  trading  community  with  a  result  that  the  record  of 
growth  in  these  busy  islands  is  simply  phenomenal. 

Reviewing  the  policy  adopted  by  the  companies  holding  the  direct 
routes  between  the  metropolis  and  large  business  centers,  in  widening 
and  doubling  their  existing  lines  to  meet  the  growth  of  traffic,  it  is  very 
doubtful  whether  the  wiser  course  would  not  have  been  the  selection  of 
a  different  route  (even  at  the  slight  lengthening  of  mileage)  accommo- 
dating towns  and  villages  lying  east  or  west  of  the  original  line  and 
thus  occupying  the  territory  adjacent  to  their  system  and  guarding 
against  the  enroachment  of  opposing  lines  ;  instances  are  present  to  my 
mind  in  which  even  experts  in  prospecting  through  such  districts — shall 
I  call  them  "  new  countries  " — have  reported  that  the  lands  "  would  not 
support  a  goose  an  acre," — and  yet  rival  companies  taking'  possession 
and  extending  facilities  to  the  scattered  or  rural  population  have  suc- 
ceeded in  establishing  remunerative  traffic  throughout  the  despised 
territory,  and  a  permanent  competition  has  been  set  up  to  the  disadvan- 
tage of  the  older  railway  system.  Such  a  successful  result  does  not, 
however,  always  ensue,  and  in  many  instances  side  lines  worked  by 
small  independent  companies  linger  out  a  miserable,  impecunious  exis- 
tence, grumbled  at  by  the  residents,  held  up  to  injurious  comparison 
with  more  prosperous  neighbors,  and  ultimately  falling  into  the  posses- 
sion of  the  larger  companies,  at  a  serious  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  the 
original  financiers. 

It  is  not  a  little  curious  how  in  this  country  the  lines  of  railway  have 
followed  the  course  adopted  by  the  lines  of  roads  laid  down  by  the 
Roman  conquerors.  One  of  the  most  marked  records  of  the  domina- 
tion of  the  Roman  empire  is  in  the  trace  of  roadways  throughout  the 
territories  they  subdued.  Some  of  these  in  England  subsist  to  the 
present  day.  The  "Watling  Street  "  stretching  from  Dover  through 
London  to  the  fastnesses  of  Wales  is  a  case  in  point.  Their  camps 
(castra)  became  developed  in  many  instances  into  important  towns,  such 
names  as  Chester,  Lancaster,  Manchester,  Leicester,  Rochester,  Win- 
chester, Towcester,  and  many  others  that  might  be  mentioned,  testify  to 
this  as  their  origin.  The  railways  have  followed  the  course  of  these 
Roman  roads,  and  thus  routes  laid  down  in  the  first  instance  for  pur- 
poses of  war  have  developed  into  the  highways  of  peaceful  commerce. 

A  similar  genesis  may  be  claimed  for  some  of  the  lines  existing  in 
our  Indian  possessions  and  at  the  Cape.  In  years  gone  by  when  troubles 
existed  in  the  south  of  Africa,  the  late  Duke  of  Wellington  showed  the 
advantage  of  the  old  Roman  policy,  and  urged  the  construction  of  main 
roads  through  the  country ;  today  the  formation  of  railroads  would  be 


244  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

substituted  and  the  movement  of  troops  accelerated  in  the  most  marked 
degree.  As  a  case  in  point  I  may  add  that  at  the  present  time  the  con- 
struction of  a  line  of  railway  from  the  eastern  coast  of  Africa  to  a 
central  point  in  Uganda,  alike  to  protect  our  interest  and  to  counteract 
the  slave  trade,  is  in  contemplation  ;  a  bold  policy  would  carry  out  the 
scheme  to  a  successful  issue  and  both  security  of  possession  and  a  new 
source  of  trade  would  certainly  result. 

While  referring  thus  to  the  lines  which  have  a  military  or  strategic 
origin,  I  am  glad  to  say  that  very  few  of  the  lines  for  which  British 
capital  has  found  the  money  have  had  such  a  commencement,  by  far 
the  larger  portion  have  originated  in  the  development  of  commerce. 
The  trade  of  the  various  dependencies  has  found  its  way  of  old  to  the 
ports  by  slow  and  old-fashioned  modes  of  conveyance  ;  the  mule  track 
— the  river  canoe — the  barge — the  caravan — the  lumber  slide — have 
had  to  give  way  to  the  advance  of  steam,  and  at  every  port  of  any 
importance  railways  have  been  constructed  to  points  in  the  interior, 
whence  the  conveyance  of  products  has  been  simplified,  and  the  volume 
of  traffic  increased  in  a  marvelous  degree. 

What  the  effects  of  the  construction  of  those  railway^into  the 
interior  may  have  been,  it  is  impossible  to  enumerate.  Some  people 
taking  a  pessimist  view  will  say  that  guns,  gunpowder,  and  ardent 
spirits  conveyed  by  traders  to  natives  and  to  settlers  is  the  net  result^ 
with  an  inevitable  diminution  in  the  number  of  the  original  inhabitants, 
but  I  would  rather  view  the  result  of  the  trading  activity  developed  by 
steam  alike  by  sea  and  by  land  as  the  great  factor  in  the  increment  of 
the  world's  wealth,  the  world's  progression,  the  world's  activity,  the 
world's  knowledge.  Wherever  the  railway  has  gone  it  has  been  accom- 
panied by  the  telegraph,  and  its  concomitant  advantages:  —  Landing 
places  have  grown  into  ports,  ports  into  harbors,  and  harbors  have 
developed  wharves,  warehouses  and  docks  ;  shipbuilding  has  sprung  up, 
lighthouses  have  been  established  along  the  frequented  coasts,  settle- 
ments have  grown  from  villages  to  important  towns,  employment  has 
been  found  for  a  vastly  increased  population,  clothing  has  become 
acclimatised  and  substituted  for  beads  and  shells,  "fair  nature's  self 
adorning."  House  building  has  replaced  the  squalor  of  native  resi- 
dences. 

An  encyclopedia  would  be  requisite  to  give  the  enumeration  of  the 
various  businesses  which  railways  have  developed  in  these  new  coun- 
tries. If,  as  the  proverb  states,  a  man  is  a  benefactor  to  his  species 
who  makes  "two  blades  of  grass  grow  where  one  only  existed  before," 
what  must  be  the  extent  of  benefits  conferred  by  railways  in  these  coun- 
tries ?  Consider  for  a  moment  the  extent  of  employment  afforded  by 
the  development  of  such  businesses  as  wine,  cotton,  silk,  sugar,  wool, 
coal,  tea,  jute,  wheat,  oil,  cattle,  alkali,  ore,  fruit ;  the  catalogue  is  end- 
less, employment  is  found  for  teeming  masses,  wages  follow  work,  and 
the  germ  of  prosperity  for  town  and  country  lies  in  the  union  of  work 
and  thrift. 

It  was  a  saying  of  one  of  the  older  engineers  m  this  country — a  man 
with  an  overweening  sense  of  his  success  in  construction  of  canals — that 
in  his  view  the  use  of  rivers  was  "to  feed  navigable  canals."  It  is,  I 
think,  to  the  action  of  rivers  that  the  modern  engineers  are  indebted 
for  the  location  of  railways  through  otherwise  impracticable  mountain 


INFLUENCE  OF  RAILWAYS  ON  NEW  COUNTRIES.        245 

barriers.  The  waterway  has  in  past  ages  httle  by  little  won  its  passage 
through  the  rocky  stratifications,  and  left  marvelous  canons  and  ravines 
indicating  to  the  enterprising  engineer  how  most  easily  to  penetrate  the 
obstruction,  and  at  what  altitude  to  commence  the  inevitable  tunnel. 
Here,  again,  comes  in  the  element  of  employment,  and  the  settlement 
of  families,  and  the  discreet  accumulations  of  thrifty  men.  Towns  are 
thus  located  in  places  otherwise  inaccessible,  and  the  well-earned  incre- 
ment of  property  develops  a  new  prosperity.  In  the  noisy  troops  of 
urchins  that  crowd  around  the  opening  of  a  new  line  one  may  see  the 
future  school  trip  traffic,  the  future  excursionists,  the  future  operatives 
and  artisans  whose  earnings  will  reach  the  coffers  of  the  railway  bureau 
for  many  a  busy  season. 

Knowing  how  little  personal  information  I  could  give  upon  the 
subject  allotted  to  me,  I  have  ventured  to  ask  Mr.  Eddy  (for  some 
years  my  assistant)  who  now  holds  the  distinguished  post  of  chief  com- 
missioner of  railways  in  New  South  Wales  to  forward  to  Mr.  Blanchard 
a  copy  of  his  last  annual  report  upon  the  railways  in  that  province, 
which,  when  it  comes  to  hand,  will  give  a  practical  illustration  of  the 
effect  of  railway  enterprise  in  a  new  country  ;  and  in  order  that  my 
paper  in  response  to  your  kind  invitation  might  not  be  absolutely  value- 
less I  have  asked  two  officers  of  my  railway  circle  of  acquaintance  for 
their  views.  In  reply  the  one  Mr.  Livesey,  sometime  manager  of  the 
narrow  gauge  railways  of  North  Wales  situate  in  a  somewhat  wild  por- 
tion of  the  state  districts  of  Carnarvonshire,  and  more  recently  manager 
of  the  Donegal  railway  in  the  north  of  Ireland,  writes  as  follows  : 

"  Now  for  your  queries.  I  noticed  in  North  Wales,  and  I  observe 
the  same  thing  is  taking  place  here,  that  the  residents  are  brightening 
up  the  appearance  of  their  houses  and  their  perso7ts.  Houses  that  have 
answered  the  purpose  for  several  generations,  are  now  either  being 
rebuilt  or  discarded  for  those  of  more  modern  pretensions,  instead  of 
the  mere  hovels  they  have  been  accustomed  to  all  their  "lives.  I  can 
only  conclude  it  is  owing  to  the  railways  enabling  them  to  see  more  of 
the  outside  worM,  and  which  opens  their  eyes  to  their  own  condition  as 
compared  with  that  of  others  who  have  had  the  benefit  of  railway  com- 
munication for  any  length  of  time,  and  shows  up  their  own  shortcom- 
ings. I  have  also  observed  railways  create  rivalry,  not  only  in  business, 
but  in  such  matters  as  the  improvement  of  the  small  towns  and  villages, 
as  for  instance  the  water  supply,  lighting  streets,  etc.,  in  places  where 
such  things  were  never  thought  of  prior  to  the  advent  of  the  railways. 

"Quite  recently  in  this  part  one  small  town  just  served  by  our  line, 
went  in  for  lighting  the  streets  with  the  result  that  several  other  places 
directly  they  saw  the  improvement  it  was,  must  have  the  same,  and 
now  they  are  agitating  for  water  to  be  laid  on  to  the  streets,  instead  of 
getting  it  as  best  they  could  heretofore.  All  this  leads  to  'the  develop- 
ment of  commerce.'  There  can  be  no  question,  I  think,  without  railways 
the  people  would  have  ever  remained  in  their  abject  condition,  but  these 
(railways)  seem  to  have  shamed  them  into  doing  something  to  mend 
matters." 

The  other  gentleman — Mr.  Morison,  the  manager  of  the  Algeciras 
(Gibraltar)  railway  in  Spain — has  taken  considerable  interest  in  the 
subject  and  I  have  pleasure  in  attaching  his  reply. 

And  now  I  can  only  reiterate  my  regret  that  my  contribution  to  your 


246  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

session  should  be  so  trite  and  commonplace  ;  the  thought  constantly 
recurring  to  my  mind  is  that  the  task  is  so  manifestly  one  for  which  an 
American  and  not  an  English  railway  officer  should  have  been  selected  ; 
it  is  to  an  extent  in  Canada  but  to  an  overpowering  degree  in  the 
United  States  that  the  benefits  of  railway  extension  are  so  manifest — in 
no  portion  of  the  globe  it  is  possible  to  discover  a  development  of  rail- 
road approaching  to  that  of  America ;  great  as  the  growth  of  railways 
has  been  in  England  (the  original  birthplace  of  the  system)  the  mileage 
totals  of  the  states  equals,  I  believe,  that  of  all  other  countries  in  the 
world  put  together!  Yet  in  1850  Illinois  had  but  two  short  lines  in  its 
borders  (one  near  Chicago);  Minnesota,  Iowa,  and  the  whole  of  the 
country  to  the  west  was  totally  devoid  of  railway  facilities ;  a  glance 
at  the  map  will  show  that  a  new  world  has  since  been  developed  almost 
entirely  owing  to  railroads.  The  country  from  ocean  to  ocean  is 
crossed  and  recrossed  by  grand  and  rival  routes  penetrating  mountain 
fastnesses ;  spanning  gigantic  rivers ;  villages,  towns,  cities,  states, 
springing  into  existence  on  the  courses  opened  out  by  the  iron  pathway 
— well  may  the  railway  congress  in  Chicago  be  proud  of  such  results  ! 


RAILWAYS   OF   FOREIGN   COUNTRIES. 


INFLUENCE  OF  RAILWAYS  IN  SPAIN. 


JOHN    MORRISON,    GENERAL    MANAGER    FERROCARRL  DE  BOBADILLA  A 
ALGECIRAS  :    ALGECIRAS,    SPAIN. 


Spain,  which  was  at  one  time  looked  upon  as  the  first,  the  strongest 
.and  the  most  advanced  nation  in  Europe,  cannot  by  any  means  be 
called  a  new  country,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word,  but  as  regards 
railways  it  is  perhaps  newer  than  any  other  civilized  kingdom  in  the 
world,  certainly  more  so  than  any  other  European  country.  And  to  no 
other  nation  in  Christendom  does  the  United  States  of  America  owe 
more  ;  for  was  it  not  Spain  who  commissioned  and  sent  out  the  little 
fleet  of  vessels  which  enabled  Christopher  Columbus,  the  discoverer  of 
America — though  not  the  actual  founder  of  the  republic — to  hit  upon 
an  unknown  continent,  which  was  destined,  under  the  guiding  and 
managing  hand  and  brain  of  some  of  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland's 
sons  and  daughters,  to  rise  to  such  eminence  and  power?  The  history 
then  of  the  introduction  and  growth  of  the  railway  system  in  Spain 
together  with  such  enormous  benefits  as  this  modern  civilizer  and 
reformer  can  bestow,  cannot  be  anything  else  than  pleasant  reading  to 
all  well-meant  and  friendly  Americans. 

Spain,  which  for  ages  had  stood  aloof  in  the  matter  of  railways,  had 
at    last    caught    the  infection  of  progress  which  was   hurrying  on  her 


•  INFLUENCE  OF  RAILWAYS  IN  SPAIN.  247 

neighbors,  and  towards  the  end  of  the  last  century,  inaugurated  her 
railway  era,  which  has  since  so  revolutionized  her  education  and  her 
commerce,  and  opened  up  her  grand  and  picturesque  mountain  passes  to 
the  iron  horse.  Between  1848  and  1858  the  construction  of  the  first  500 
miles  of  railway  in  Spain  had  become  an  accomplished  fact,  and  so  far 
the  horn  of  the  young  postilion,  guiding  the  old  cumbersome  "  diligen- 
cia,"  on  its  way  through  streets,  alleys  and  country  roads,  had  given 
way  to  the  shrill  whistle  of  the  locomotive.  From  1857  to  1869  some- 
thing like  2800  miles  were  opened  to  the  public,  and  undoubtedly  these 
stretches  of  railway  lines  accelerated  the  revolution  of  1868,  and  contri- 
buted to  the  upheaval  which  broke  the  solid  crust  which  time  and  habit 
had  drawn  over  the  inhabitants  of  the  peninsula. 

The  first  seventeen  miles  of  railway  was  put  under  traffic  in  1848, 
and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  progress  of  the  country  since  then 
is  due  in  a  great  measure  to  the  origin  and  extension  of  the  railway 
system.  On  the  ist  January,  1883,  the  total  mileage  was  4865  miles, 
which  by  the  ist  January,  1888,  had  increased  to  8607  miles,  and  is  still 
increasing  in  a  remarkable  degree.  At  first  the  construction  of  railways 
in  Spain  had  been  the  outcome  of  French  and  Belgium  capital  ;  then 
came  the  Germans  to  the  rescue,  and  England  who  had  taken  such  a 
noble  and  leading  part  in  railway  enterprise  in  other  parts  of  the  world 
seemed  to  have  brought  up  the  rear.  Many  of  these  lines  were  aided 
materially  by  a  subvention  from  the  government,  in  consideration  of 
which  the  railways  so  assisted  will  become  government  property  after 
the  lapse  of  ninety-nine  years.  Meantime  these  railways  have  to  carry 
all  the  mails  free,  as  well  as  some  of  the  military  forces  of  the  country  ; 
other  officials  and  servants  have  to  be  accommodated  at  either  half  or 
quarter  fares,  and  as  if  all  this  were  not  sufficient  recompense  for  the 
limited  subsidy  allowed,  each  line  aided  by  the  state  in  construction 
has  to  pay  1 5  per  cent  tax  on  the  gross  receipts  from  passengers  and  3 
per  cent  on  the  gross  merchandise  revenue.  Notwithstanding  all  these 
services,  rendered  either  entirely  or  partially  free,  and  the  high  tax 
imposed,  railways  are  growing  more  and  more  numerous,  and  foreign 
capital  keeps  pouring  into  the  country  still.  It  is  recorded  that  up  to 
1882  the  Spanish  government  had  spent  nearly  ^25,000,000  in  the  shape 
of  subventions  to  railways,  and  this  would  never  have  been  done  but 
for  the  certainty  that  the  best,  surest  and  quickest  way  of  developing 
the  enormous  resources  of  the  country,  that  had  so  long  lain  unproduc- 
tive and  practically  dormant,  was  by  means  of  railway  communication. 

As  proof  of  the  great  influence  the  inauguration  and  extension  of 
railways  had  upon  the  trade  and  commerce  of  the  country  we  give  below 
a  comparative  table  showing  the  imports  and  exports  for  the  years 
ended  1862  and  the  twenty  years  ended  1882  : 

From  1852  to  1862 

the  imports  were  worth  ...    £  7,531,671 

and  the  exports 5,667,834 

Making  a  grand  total  of ;^i3>i99>S05 

In  1862  the  value  of  imports  was ;£i6,793,i27 

and  exports  were  worth   11,105,322 

Making  a  grand  total  of £,2t  fiqS,^^() 

From  1862  to  1882 

the  imports  were  worth _^32,666,676 

and  the  exports 30,615,043 

Making  the  grand  total  in  20  years  of ^63,281,719 


248  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

This  was  a  most  remarkable  growth  in  any  case,  but  when  we  take 
into  account  the  fact  that  during  all  these  years  Spain  had  been  suffer- 
ing from  internal  commotions  which  seldom  fall  to  the  lot  of  civilized 
nations,  the  development  is  still  more  wonderful. 

The  copper  from  Tharsis,  the  iron  from  Rio-Tinto  and  Bilbao,  etc., 
the  coal  from  Belmez  and  the  lead  and  silver  from  Linares,  and  min- 
erals from  many  other  places  which  we  will  not  stop  to  mention,  are  all 
the  outcome  of  railway  facilities.  Before  the  advent  of  the  railway 
these  rich,  plentiful  and  valuable  resources  lay  for  the  most  part  undis- 
turbed in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  and  the  fruits  and  wines  so  common 
to  Spain  were  in  olden  times  produced  chiefly  for  home  consumption. 
One  noteworthy  feature  due  to  railway  enterprise  is  the  steady  increase 
in  the  trade  of  the  country  notwithstanding  the  political  disadvantages 
under  which  she  labors. 

The  latest  addition  to  the  iron  roads  of  Spain  is  certainly  not  the 
least  important.  We  refer  to  the  Algeciras  (Gibraltar)  &  Bobadilla 
railway,  which  opens  up  a  track  of  country  of  unparalleled  scenery  and 
various  resources.  This  new  line  forms  the  last  link  in  the  overland 
route  between  England  and  her  colony  and  stronghold  of  Gibraltar,  and 
besides  connects  Spain  and  Morocco  in  a  way  unheard  of  before. 
Already  the  tourist  from  New  York,  Chicago  and  other  parts  of  Amer- 
ica who  disembarks  in  Gibraltar,  from  either  the  North  German  Lloyd 
or  the  Hamburg-American  Steampacket  company's  steamers,  has  found 
this  new  line  a  great  boon.  By  means  of  it  he  finds  himself  able  to 
leave  the  "Old  Rock"  at  pleasure,  and  speed  his  way  to  Ronda,  Gra- 
nada, Cordoba,  Sevilla,  Madrid,  Paris  or  the  Riviera,  as  the  case  may 
be,  and  come  back  again  the  same  way,  if  so  inclined,  to  join  his 
steamer  on  his  return  to  his  home  and  his  country.  Within  the  few 
Short  months  that  this  latest  addition  to  the  railway  system  of  Spain 
has  been  open  to  the  public  the  value  of  land  and  house  property  have 
gone  up,  and  Algeciras,  the  sea-coast  terminus — opposite  Gibraltar — is 
rapidly  rising  in  importance.  The  country  traversed  by  this  new  road 
gives  every  indication  of  possessing  rich  deposits  of  minerals,  especially 
iron  ore,  gas  coal  and  shale,  but  so  far  nothing  has  been  done  in  the 
way  of  turning  these  resources  to  account.  Now,  however,  the  advant- 
age of  having  direct  railway  communication  from  the  seats  of  this  hid- 
den wealth  to  the  seacoast  will  give  an  impetus  to  mining,  and  within 
the  next  few  years  it  will  be  found  that  the  same  prosperity  and  advance- 
ment which  have  followed  in  the  wake  of  railways  in  other  parts  of 
Spain  will  immediately  begin  to  dawn  on  this  district  as  well  and 
eventually  result  in  producing  wealth  and  happiness  in  places  which 
had  for  so  long  been  in  a  state  of  inactivity  and  stagnation. 

Among  other  benefits  which  this  great  civilizer  brings  in  its  train  is 
that  of  personal  intercourse  between  members  and  representatives  of 
different  nationalities.  Men  and  women  are  as  a  rule  fond  of  foreign 
travel,  and  when  pecuniary  and  other  circumstances  admit  of  it  they 
must  need  take  .a  trip  through  some  other  country  than  their  own. 
Spain  is  now  becoming  a  great  rendezvous  for  Americans,  English, 
French  and  Germans,  but  especially  the  former.  Without  the  country 
had  been  opened  up  so  far  with  railways  these  tourists  would  never 
dream  of  coming  to  spend  some  of  their  time  and  money  visiting  the 
antiquities  of  Ronda  and  Granada,  the  attractions  of  Seville  and  Cor- 


THE  RAIL  WA  YS  OF  ITAL  V.  249 

doba  and  the  relics  of  by-gone  ages  to  be  found  in  such  abundance  all 
over  the  beautiful  region  of  Andalusia.  The  increase  of  railways  has  a 
tendency  in  every  country  to  produce  rest  and  peace,  but  in  no  other 
kingdom  has  this  fact  been  better  illustrated  than  in  Spain.  Every 
inch  of  country,  therefore,  that  is  opened  up  by  railways,  with  their 
concomitant  industrial  and  commercial  enterprises,  tends  to  accentuate 
and  strengthen  the  foundations  of  society  and  chase  away  in  a  most 
amazing  degree  the  dislike  and  distrust  of  one  another,  which  had 
formerly  been  the  bane  and  disgrace  of  so-called  civilization. 

As  the  iron  highways  of  Spain  grew  and  multiplied  revolutions  dis- 
appeared, and  the  industrial  and  commercial  classes  are  now  settling 
down  to  compete  with  the  other  nations  of  the  world  in  all  that  tend  to 
elevate,  enrich  and  ennoble  a  nation  naturally  possessed  of  excellent 
sterling  qualities,  which  only  require  to  be  known  to  be  admired  and 
appreciated.  To  the  advent  of  the  railway  into  Spain,  therefore,  must 
be  traced  the  impetus  her  commerce  and  her  industries  have  received 
during  the  last  forty-five  years,  the  increasing  influx  of  visitors  year 
after  year,  as  well  as  the  peace  and  good  will  that  are  ever  on  the 
increase  ;  and  what  holds  good  of  Spain  must  also  hold  good  of  other 
nations  who  have  deliberately  opened  their  hearts  and  their  purses  to 
scientific  and  enterprising  men  who  are  always  ready  to  risk  everything 
if  only  their  most  cherished  objects  can  be  attained. 


« 


THE  RAILWAYS  OF  ITALY. 


COUNT     R.     PIOLA     CASELLI,     GENERAL     SECRETARY     ROYAL     ITALIAN 
COMMISSION    world's    COLUMBIAN    EXPOSITION. 


In  this  honorable  congress  and  in  Chicago,  the  greatest  railroad 
center  in  the  world,  I  beg  leave  to  say  a  few  words  in  behalf  of  Italy, 
that  being  not  the  last  country  for  importance  of  works  and  develop- 
ment of  railroad  commerce. 

The  discovery  of  the  locomotive  happened  in  the  striking  time  of 
the  Italian  revolution,  its  application  was  developed  in  Italy  with  the 
development  of  the  new  Italian  kingdom  ;  therefore  with  the  economi- 
cal movement  it  has  always  followed  the  political  movements  too,  mak- 
ing itself  useful  to  commerce  as  well  as  to  the  national  unification.  And 
so  when  in  i860  in  the  southern  provinces,  subject  up  to  that  date  to 
the  Bourbonic  domination,  there  existed  but  a  single  railroad  and  a 
very  short  one,  yet  in  the  remainder  of  the  continent  and  especially  in 
northern  Italy  in  the  vast  plains  of  Piedmont  and  Lombardy  where  the 
independence  wars  were  being  fought  and  won,  a  very  large  system  of 
railroads  served  already  as  a  peaceful  and  useful  communication. 

When  the  unity  of  Italy  was  assured  the  initiating  work  of  the  gov- 
ernment came  to  an  end,  and  in  Italy  as  in  the  other  nations  the 
inauguration  and  development  of  railways  was  allotted  to  separate  com- 
panies, following  thus  the  way  opposite  to  that  used  in  America  where  the 


2  5  o  WORLD'S  RAIL  WA  V  CO  AIMER  C£  CONGRESS. 

initiative  is  absolutely  by  private  capital.  Italy  with  courage  and 
tenacity  surmounted  the  great  obstacles  raised  by  political  reasons  and 
nature,  and  in  a  few  years  her  railways  reached  a  wonderful  develop- 
ment, not  only  opening  up  the  interior  but  connecting  the  country 
with  the  other  nations  and  serving  as  an  impulse  to  the  international 
European  movement.  In  1871  the  service  of  the  first  tunnel  twenty 
miles  long  was  inaugurated  connecting  France  to  Italy,  which  not  only 
brought  into  communication  two  sister  nations  but  made  easy  the  inter- 
course between  the  extreme  east  and  the  far  west  of  Europe  and  gave 
to  the  modern  engineering  one  of  the  most  important  discoveries  of  the 
century,  that  of  compressed  air  as  a  moving  power.  The  India  mail  now 
goes  through  the  Italian  continent  and  that  tunnel  direct  to  London. 

Wherever  I  turn  in  this  great  and  free  country  the  vastness  of  the 
railroad  system  creates  in  me  always  new  wonders  as  I  observe  the  work 
of  your  great  companies,  moved  by  the  double  aim  of  civilizing  unfre- 
quented lands  and  usefully  carrying  out  some  great  financial  specula- 
tion. 

In  Italy,  where  unoccupied  lands  do  not  existany  longer,  the  work  of 
the  railway  cannot  proceed  as  fast  and  imposingly  as  in  America,  but 
yet  its  course  of  civilization  and  progress  is  not  stopped,  and  new  rail- 
ways are  opened  every  year  to  put  in  communication  large  and  small 
towns,  from  the  tops  of  the  mountains  to  the  shore  of  the  Mediterranean, 
never  stopping  before  the  difficulties  arising  from  the  exceedingly 
picturesque  topography  of  the  peninsula. 

Four  flourishing  companies  in  Italy  do  the  continent  and  island  serv- 
ice as  well.  Their  organization  is  one  of  the  best  in  Europe,  and  this 
is  shown  by  the  fact  that  accidents  very  seldom  happen,  though  our 
express  trains  run  at  high  speed.  The  endeavor  of  our  companies  to 
protect  by  every  means  the  life  of  travelers  is  not  the  least  coefficient  in 
the  important  development  of  railways  in  Italy. 

The  latest  of  our  companies,  organized  with  the  aim  of  extending 
railways  in  the  Sicilian  island,  has  reached  in  a  few  years  a  most  import- 
ant position  in  the  Italian  railway  federation.  By  reason  of  their  activ- 
ity and  energy  a  system  of  railroads  now  runs  all  through  the  beautiful 
island  and  connects  with  the  continental  railroad,  making  commerce 
amongst  the  smallest  village  of  the  island  and  the  remainder  of  the 
nation  easier. 

The  late  national  exhibition  at  Palermo  was  owing  mostly  to  the 
intelligent  initiative  of  the  Sicilian  railway  company,  and  the  result 
obtained  has  shown  that  the  boldness  of  the  young  company  was  not 
without  results. 

Yet  though  asserting  the  merits  of  the  Italian  railway  I  am  throughly 
convinced  how  much  we  have  to  learn  in  the  country  of  Cooper  from 
the  American  railway  system.  America  is  an  example  to  the  world  of 
the  power,  strength  of  will  and  knowledge  of  a  very  young  and  power- 
ful people  to  whom  nothing  is  impossible,  and  this  study  aided  by  the 
results  that  we  are  going  to  obtain  from  this  World's  Congress  will 
always  more  illuminate  the  civil  world,  increasing  fraternal  ties  amongst 
the  peoples  and  universal  prosperity. 

In  the  name  of  Italy  I  greet  all  the  persons  gathered  at  this  con- 
gress,  and  our  neighborly  brother  of  America  who  helped  us  in  our 
enterprise  and  who  has  never  been  unworthy  of  the  sublime  boldness 
of  their  pioneer  Columbo. 


THE  RAIL  WA  YS  OF  SWEDEN.  2  5 1 


THE  RAILWAYS  OF  SWEDEN. 


BY    DIRECTION     OF    CHIEF     TRAFFIC     MANAGER    ROYAL    STATE     RAIL- 
WAYS, WRITTEN  BY  MR.  GUSTAF  WELIN,  OFFICIAL  IN  HIS  OFFICE. 


[Read  by  Mr.  Axel  Welin,   Secretary   Royal   Swedish   Commission  to   the  World's   Columbian 

Exposition] . 


A  long  time  passed  before  the  Swedish  nation  could  learn  to  appre- 
ciate the  full  importance  of  the  mighty  means  of  conveyance  brought 
into  practical  life  through  the  match  at  Rainhill  between  the  two  differ- 
ent locomotive  types  of  Stephenson  and  John  Ericsson.  It  was  during 
the  year  1856  that  Swedish  railways  were  first  opened  to  the  public. 
The  cause  of  this  delay  must  chiefly  be  attributed  to  an  unfavorable 
climate  and  to  the  undeveloped  state  of  industrial  and  agricultural 
interests  of  those  times,  as  well  as  to  our  peninsular  situation  with  its 
abundance  of  navigable  lakes  and  rivers  which  naturally  seemed  to  refer 
us  almost  exclusively  to  the  far  cheaper  water  communications.  At 
last,  however,  when  our  people  began  to  perceive  the  great  advantages 
which  would  necessarily  be  derived  from  the  new  method  of  traveling 
by  railway,  there  was  a  sudden  change  of  public  opinion  in  its  favor. 
The  capitalists  of  our  country  competed  in  their  endeavors  to  furnish 
the  different  parts  of  the  country  with  railways,  and  in  less  than 
eighteen  years,  or  in  1874,  Sweden  had  got  a  railway  system,  which  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  our  population  took  the  lead  of  that  of  all 
European  nations,  a  fact  which  still  exists. 

Contrary  to  the  customs  of  England  and  America  our  railways 
belong  to  the  so-called  "  mixed  system,"  that  is  they  are  partly  state 
and  partly  private  property,  but  it  must  be  observed  that  the  state  has 
granted  important  subventions,  chiefly  as  loans  on  favorable  terms,  to 
many  of  the  private  railway  corporations.  The  conditions  of  concession 
for  private  roads  are  also  as  liberal  as  possible.  This  dualism  in  the 
manner  of  viewing  matters  which  characterizes  our  state  as  advancer 
of  capital  for  our  railway  industry  has  greatly  assisted  the  development 
of  private  railway  enterprise. 

The  first  state  railway  lines  (from  Gothenburg  to  Jonsered  and  from 
Malmo  to  Lund)  were  opened  to  the  public  on  the  ist  of  December, 
1856.  Afterwards  state  railway  building  was  carried  on  with  such 
energy  that  during  the  year  1864  we  got  a  direct  rail  communication 
between  our  three  largest  towns,  Stockholm,  Gothenburg  and  Malmo. 
Seven  years  later,  or  in  1871,  the  two  countries  of  Scandinavia  were 
connected  with  each  other  through  the  extension  of  the  Northwestern 
main  line  to  the  Norwegian  frontier  at  Charlottenberg  and  during  the 
same  year  the  connecting  line  through  Stockholm  was  completed. 

The  Stockholm-Malmo  line,  most  important  to  the.  international 
traffic  of  Sweden,  was  shortened  during  1874  by  the  opening  of  the  east 
mainline  (Katrineholm-Nassjo)  and  during  the  following  year  the  south  of 


2  52  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

Northland,  being  by  far  the  largest  part  of  Sweden,  was  connected  with 
the  capital  through  the  extension  of  the  North  main  line  to  Storvik, 
from  whence  construction  has  continued  uninterrupted,  so  that  (during 
the  year  1894)  it  is  expected  to  be  completed  to  Boden,  not  very  far 
from  the  borders  of  Finland,  Russia,  and  among  other  results  com- 
munication will  be  effected  with  the  Gellivara  railway,  the  most  north- 
ern railway  in  existence. 

Regarding  the  extension  of  private  railways  in  Sweden  we  may  give 
the  following  data  : 

On  the  5th  of  March,  1856,  the  first  line,  Orebro  (Dylta)  Nora,  was 
opened,  and  during  the  year  1859  we  got  an  important  railway  connec- 
tion between  the  inner  parts  of  the  country  and  the  shores  of  the  Baltic 
through  the  opening  of  the  Gefle-Dala  railway.  The  entire  length  of 
railways  at  the  end  of  1859  was  only  175  km.  (108  miles)  and  even 
during  the  following  decade  there  were  only  415  km.  (257  miles)  of 
private  railways  built.  All  interest  of  this  kind  seems  then  to  have 
been  concentrated  on  the  projection  and  execution  of  state  railways.  But 
in  the  beginning  of  the  decade  1870-79  the  construction  of  private  rail- 
ways was  started  with  energy  and  owing  to  the  unusually  favorable 
conditions  of  trade  in  general  they  increased  during  this  period  with  a 
length  of  more  than  3,000  km.  (nearly  1,900  miles)  and  duriiig  the  one 
year  iSyj  of  nearly  1,000  km.  {620  ?niies)  a  very  co?iside?'able  addi- 
tion for  our  circMmstances.  The  length  of  our  private  railway  is  now 
5,642  km.  (3,500  miles)  and  since  the  year  1880  it  has  increased 
nearly  2,000  km.  (more  than  1,200  miles). 

The  most  important  of  the  private  lines  is  the  "  Bergslagernas  rail- 
way," which  connects  the  two  towns  Gothenburg  and  Falun,  a  distance 
of  486  km.  The  closest  net  of  railways  is  laid  in  Skane,  a  most  fertile 
and  richly  populated  province  in  the  south  of  Sweden.  As  main  lines, 
besides  the  long  state  railway  stretching  from  Stockholm  to  the  north, 
south  and  west,  we  can  also  characterize  the  private  railways,  Falun- 
Gothenburg-Helsingborg  and  Stockholm-Orebro. 

An  examination  of  the  geographical  situation  of  our  railways  shows 
that  in  their  building  three  chief  points  are  aimed  at,  namely,  to  get  a 
communication,  (i)  between  the  remote  north  and  south  ;  (2)  between  the 
interior  parts  with  their  local  business  centers  and  the  harbors  of  the 
west  and  east  shores,  and  (3)  between  the  two  kingdoms  of  Scandinavia. 

(With  the  exception  of  the  connecting  line  in  Stockholm,  the  Swed- 
ish railways  are  all  single  tracked.  The  standard  gauge  of  the  state 
railways  and  that  of  70  per  cent  of  the  private  ones  is  1.435  n^-  (4ft.  8>^ 
in.)  Among  the  latter  railways  are  thirty-seven  lines  that  have  narrow 
gauge,  varying  between  1.2 17  and  0.600  m.) 

As  characterizing  our  railroads  we  may  mention  the  great  number 
of  bridges  which  it  has  been  necessary  to  build  on  account  of  the  numer- 
ous water  crossings,  and  of  which  many  are  quite  grand.  Some  of  these 
are  a  good  proof  of  Swedish  engineering  skill,  among  these  the  bridge 
bridge  over  the  Dala  river,  which  is  217  m.  (712  feet)  long  and  has  seven 
arches,  the  longest  of  which  is  47.5  m.  (156  feet),  and  the  bridge  over 
the  Angerman  river  which  is  262  m.  (860  feet)  long  has  five  arches,  of 
which  the  longest  is  76.4  m.  (240  feet),  and  is  40  m.  (130  feet)  above 
highest  water  level.  Among  other  remarkable  feats  of  engineering 
may  be  mentioned  the  connecting  line  through  Stockholm  with  its  tun- 


THE  RAILWAYS  OF  SWEDEN.  253 

nel  433  m.  (1420  feet)  long,  two  large  bridges,  long  embankments  and 
pilings,  etc. 

Regarding  rolling  stock  it  may  be  stated,  as  a  general  rule,  that 
there  being  no  actual  Swedish  system  in  construction  the  locomotives 
are  mostly  in  accordance  with  English  types  and  the  carriages  like  the 
German.  During  later  years  the  American  system  has  also  been 
coming  into  use. 

The  prevailing  brake  system  comprises  the  automatic  brakes  of 
Korting  and  Smith-Hardy. 

Among  the  different  types  of  freight  cars  we  may  mention  the 
twenty  ton  carriages  on  six  wheels  for  transport  of  iron  ore  on  the  Gel- 
livara  line,  and  also  the  refrigerator  cars  for  butter  transport,  with  their 
three-fold  walls  and  roofs,  reservoirs  for  ice,  etc.,  which  are  very  suitable 
for  their  purpose. 

The  number  of  locomotives  used  on  the  Swedish  railways  is  goo, 
wagons  2,000  and  freight  cars  21,000. 

The  adminstration  of  Swedish  state  railways  is  conducted  by  a  direc- 
tion appointed  by  the  government.  The  private  railways  have  their 
special  directions,  but  in  case  of  their  having  received  state  subvention 
the  government  appoints  a  representative  member.  Concession  for 
private  railways  is  usually  granted  by  the  government,  which  also, 
according  to  the  right  of  economical  legislation  which  our  fundamen- 
tal laws  give  to  the  king,  settles  the  taxes  and  maximum  tariffs  of  all 
railways  in  the  country. 

The  general  instructions  for  traffic  both  on  state  and  private  lines 
are  also  issued  by  the  government ;  the  more  detailed  regulations  for 
the  service,  as  regards  signalling,  rules  for  safety  etc.,  are  worked  out 
by  the  Royal  Railway  Direction,  both  for  state  and  private  lines.  Beyond 
this  the  private  railways  have  perfect  liberty  for  action,  and  there  is  no 
check  put  on  their  economical  and  adminstrative  independence  from  the 
public.  The  directions  are  at  liberty  to  permit,  when  so  found  suitable, 
all  kinds  of  reduction  in  prices  or  other  advantages  for  transportation 
on  their  own  railroads.  Reduction  of  tariffs  on  the  state  lines  may  be 
given  by  the  Royal  Direction  only  in  case  of  clearly  increasing  traffic 
or  revenues. 

The  system  of  private  railways  is  divided  amongst  not  less  than  108 
different  owners.  To  prevent  unfair  competition,  which  was  to  be 
feared  as  a  result  of  so  many  diverging  interests,  an  association  for 
inter  traffic  was  organized  in  1882,  consisting  of  the  state  railways  and 
nearly  all  the  private  companies.  The  fundamental  rule  of  this  asso- 
ciation is  that  all  transportation  is  to  be  made  on  the  cheapest  route. 
The  good  results  of  this  institution  have  reached  both  the  travelers  and 
the  railways  themselves.  The  tariff  which  is  the  basis  of  all  freight 
charges  of  this  association  is  the  same  as  used  for  all  local  transporta- 
tion on  the  state  lines.  This  tax,  having  been  revised  several  times  and 
in  its  present  state  the  result  of  the  work  of  a  royal  committee  of  1888, 
is  remarkable  for  its  detailed  classification  of  goods  and  its  sharply  fall- 
ing rates  for  goods  forwarded  on  longer  distances.  These  rates  are 
twelve  in  number  besides  three  special  ones,  and  are  constructed  to 
decrease* in  proportion  to  the  distances.  The  rates  for  passengers  are  on 
the  contrary  not  falling,  but  considerable  reductions  are  granted  for 
return  journeys  between  two  stations,  and  for  season  tickets,  etc.     The 


2  54  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

burning  question  of  reduced  passenger  rates  will  probably  soon  approach 
its  solution,  as  the  parliament  has  lately  expressed  a  desire  in  this  direc- 
tion. A  practical  and  clearly  defined  resolution  in  this  matter  will  be 
of  importance  also  as  favoring  the  colonization  of  Northland  from  the 
southern  parts  of  the  country. 

The  number  of  employes  required  at  present  for  the  traffic  on  Swedish 
railways  amounts  to  about  20,000,  of  which  12,000  have  so-called  ordin- 
ary or  permanent  employment.  About  half  of  these  numbers  belong 
to  the  state  railway. 

Employment  and  dismissal  is  done  through  the  respective  directions, 
and  the  state  has  not  given  any  general  rules  regarding  the  staff  of 
private  railways,  except  in  the  matter  of  a  careful  examination  of  the 
eye  in  regard  to  colors.  The  direct  supervision  of  employes  is  carried 
on  by  the  heads  of  traffic  service,  who  also  exercise  control  over  the 
starting  and  running  of  the  trains,  etc.  No  general  rules  are  given  for 
the  length  of  the  working  day,  but  it  is  the  endeavor  especially  with 
regard  to  the  important  and  hard  service  of  the  train  staff  to  make  its 
work  as  easy  as  possible.  The  salaries  are  naturally  very  different  on 
different  railways  and  in  different  employments,  but  generally  we  can 
say  that  they  are  quite  comparable  with  or  even  higher  than  those  on 
the  railways  of  our  neighboring  countries.  The  self-help  system  in  the 
form  of  saving  funds,  life  insurance  associations,  etc.,  is  much  used  by 
the  railway  people  over  the  whole  country.  In  connection  with  this  we 
may  mention  the  pension  funds,  which  are  organized  with  the  view  of 
giving  the  employes  fair  pension  in  old  age  and  support  to  their  sur- 
vivors. These  institutions  enjoy  large  subventions  from  the  govern- 
ment and  from  interested  private  railways. 

For  strategical  purposes  several  arrangements  are  made  to  enable 
us  with  the  aid  of  our  railways  to  meet  an  eventual  attack.  These 
arrangements  are  guided  in  the  first  place  by  a  special  division  for  com- 
munications at  our  military  staff  general.  The  task  of  this  division  is 
to  make  experiments  and  observations  with  regard  to  the  means  of  con- 
veyance in  Sweden  that  they  may  be  suitable  for  the  defense  of  our  country. 
There  are  also  worked  out  detailed  instructions  for  the  use  of  railways 
in  war,  schemes  for  mobilization  and  concentration  of  the  troops,  etc. 
All  new  railway  construction  must  be  subjected  to  a  preliminary  exam- 
ination by  military  authorities,  and  regarding  these  matters  there  exists 
a  lively  cooperation  between  the  military  and  railway  authorities. 

At  the  end  of  1892  the  length  of  our  state  railways  was  more  than 
3000  km.  and  the  length  of  the  private  ones,  as  before  mentioned,  was 
more  than  5600  km.  The  cost  of  construction  of  all  the  railways  in 
Sweden  amounted  at  the  end  of  1892  to  560  millions  of  crowns  ($150,- 
000,000)  of  which  300  millions  ($81,000,000)  were  paid  for  the  state 
railways.  The  money  for  building  the  last  mentioned  railways  is  chiefly 
secured  by  public  loans,  partly  from  our  own  country  and  partly  from 
abroad.  In  connection  with  this  we  may  mention  that  our  public  debts 
are  all  contracted  for  railway  undertakings.  In  subvention  to  private 
railways  the  state  has  appropriated  60  millions  of  crowns  ($16,000,000). 

The  number  of  persons  traveling  on  our  railways  during  1891 
amounted  to  nearly  14  millions,  or  three  tmies  the  nu?fiber  of  our  popu- 
lation. The  quantity  of  goods  transported  during  the  same  year  was 
1 1   million  tons.     Our  most  considerable  transport  articles  are  timber, 


KAIL  WAY  SYS  TEM  OF  NE  W  SO  UTH  WALES.  255 

agricultural  products,  especially  corn,  and  mining  products,  as  iron,  ore 
and  manufactured  iron.  The  gross  profit  during  1891  amounted  to 
nearly  50  millions  of  crowns  ($13,000,000),  33  per  cent  being  the  rev- 
enue of  the  passenger  traffic.  The  clear  profit  exceeded  21  millions  of 
crowns  ($6,000,000)  of  which  six  and  one-half  millions  belong  to  the 
state  railways  ;  equal  to  2.52  per  cent  on  the  capital  invested  in  state 
railroads  and  4.52  per  cent  on  that  invested  in  private  roads.  This  last 
figure,  4.52  per  cent,  shows  that  our  private  railways  are  now-a-days  a 
well-paying  business  and  this  fact  may  give  increased  weight  to  the  plan 
of  acquiring  the  most  important  of  these  lines  for  the  state  which  is 
beginning  to  be  more  widely  advocated,  and  which  certainly  concerns 
the  most  important  question  of  the  future  of  Swedish  railroads. 

It  is  difficult  to  give  in  exact  figures  the  indirect  gain  from  our  rail- 
ways, but  the  remarkable  growth  of  our  national  resources  during  the 
last  decades  certainly  corresponds  with  the  origin  and  development  of 
our  railway  system.  The  social  history  of  Sweden  since  1855  shows  also 
the  great  interest  of  the  country  in  the  railway  question,  the  national 
importance  of  which  appears  in  still  clearer  light  when  it  is  remembered 
that  our  railways  fulfill  one  of  the  most  important  conditions  for  a  suc- 
cessful defense  of  the  liberty  achieved  by  our  forefathers. 


THE  RAILWAY  SYSTEM  OF  NEW  SOUTH  WALES. 


HON.    ARTHUR    RENWICK,    M.D.,    EXECUTIVE    COMMISSIONER    FOR    NEW 
SOUTH    WALES,  WORLD'S    COLUMBIAN  EXPOSITION. 


In  order  to  summarize  the  information  required  by  this  congress  on 
this  important  subject,  as  well  as  to  submit  for  general  information  the 
more  important  facts  and  statistics  connected  therewith,  I  believe  my 
best  course  on  the  present  occasion  will  be  to  quote  the  official  informa- 
tion of  the  government  statistician  as  submitted  to  parliament  for  the 
year  1892,  for  the  most  part  in  the  language  of  his  own  report.  With 
regard  to  the  extension  of  the  railway  facilities  he  remarks :  The  Aus- 
tralian colonies  have  always  been  distinguished  by  progressive  ideas, 
and  although  the  colonies  contained  only  a  small  population  when  the 
railways  were  making  their  way  in  England,  the  question  early  received 
earnest  consideration  from  the  principal  citizens  of  Sydney,  then  the 
only  large  center  of  population  in  Australia.  It  is  difficult  to  say  when 
the  movement  first  commenced  to  assume  a  substantial  form,  but  as  far 
back  as  1846  meetings  were  being  held  to  press  on  the  construction  of 
railways,  and  the  formation  of  a  railway  company  mooted.  At  this 
time  the  population  of  the  whole  of  Australia  was  227,144  only,  and  of 
this  number  155,000  persons  were  located  in  New  South  Wales. 

The  first  railway  company  assumed  a  definite  form  in  1849,  "^"^^  ^^^s 
had  for  its  object  the  construction  in  the  first  instance  of  the  railway  to 
Parramatta  and  Liverpool.  From  this  small  beginning  the  large  rail- 
way enterprise  of  Australia,  excluding  Tasmania  and  New  Zealand,  has 


256 


WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 


grown  into  a  system  of  9,000  miles  of  railway,  and  a  combined  capital 
of  at  least  §465,000,000. 

The  birth  of  the  railway  system  may  be  said  to  date  from  the  3d  of 
July,  1850,  when  Lady  Keith  Stewart,  the  wife  of  the  then  governor, 
turned  the  first  sod  of  the  New  South  Wales  railway.  The  progress  of 
the  initial  line  was  very  slow,  financial  and  labor  troubles  handicapping 
the  private  company,  the  government  finally  having  to  step  in  and  take 
over  the  line,  which,  as  a  going  concern,  was  by  a  happy  coincidence 
opened  on  the  anniversary  of  railways  in  England,  viz.,  the  27th  of 
September,  1855  ;  the  colonial  line,  however,  being  30  years  later. 

Since  then  the  lines  have  progressed,  considering  the  population  of 
the  colony,  at  a  rapid  rate,  the  length  of  passenger  lines  in  the  colony 
being  2,393  miles,  including  2,314  miles  controlled  by  the  government, 
and  laid  down  on  the  English  standard  gauge  of  4  feet  8>^  inches,  and 
two  important  private  lines,  viz.,  the  Denilquin  and  Moama  line  (45 
miles),  which  connects  with  the  Victorian  system  at  Echuca  (opposite 
Moama  on  the  Murray),  and  the  private  line  from  Silverton  and  Broken 
Hill  to  the  South  Australian  border. 

The  following  table  shows  the  number  of  miles  of  lines  opened  in 
each  year,  as  well  as  the  total  length  opened : 


Year 

1855 

1856 

1857 

1858 

1859 

i860 

1861 

1862 

1863 

1864 

1865 

1866 

1867 

1868 

1869 

1870 

1871 

1872 

1873 


Opened. 

Total.  1 

14 

14 

9 

23  1 

17 

40  1 

■    ni! 

55  1 

55  I 

15 

70  1 

3 

73 

24 

97 

27 

124 

S^ 

143 
143 

nil 

143 

61 

204 

43 
71 

247 

318  1 

21 

339  II 

19 
40 

'^  ! 

5 

403  ; 

Year. 

1874 

1875  

1876 

1877 

1878 

1879 

1880 

1881 

1882 

1883 

1884 

1885 

1886 

1887 

J1888 

ti889 

I1890 

ti89i 

I1892 


Opened. 


34 
72 
89 
90 
46 
"5 
146 
*28o 

52 
298 
114 

157 
ti52 
78 
45 
II 
nil 
3 


Total. 


403 
437 
509 
598 
688 
734 
849 
995 
1.27s 

1.327 
1.625 

1.739 
1,896 
2,048 
2,126 
2,171 
2,182 
2,182 
2,185 


*  Year  ended  June  30. 
Sans  Souci  line. 


flnclusive  of  Campbell  town -Camden  line.     Jlnclusiveof  Kogarah- 


Of  the  2,185  miles  in  operation  in  June,  1892,  2,033  miles  were  sin- 
gle lines,  143  miles  double,  and  8  miles  of  line  with  four  tracks. 


EXTENSION    OF    RAILWAY    FACILITIES. 

The  progress  of  the  accommodation  afforded  by  the  state  railways 
of  the  colony  can  be  fairly  gauged  by  comparing  the  number  of  persons 
at  different  periods  to  eacTi  mile  of  line  open  for  traffic,  and  the  number 
of  train  miles  per  inhabitant.  Thus  in  i860  there  were  4,979  persons 
to  each  mile  of  line,  but  by  the  end  of  the  year  1880  the  work  of  con- 
struction was  so  much  in  excess  of  the  increase  of  population  that  the 
proportion  per  mile  had  fallen  to  881  persons,  so  that  the  facilities 
afforded  by  the  railways  were  more  than  four  times  as  great  as  in  the 
year  first  named,  while  in    1892  the  population  per  mile  of  line  was 


RAILWAY  SYSTEM  OF  NEW  SOUTH  WALES. 


^Sl 


reduced  to  541.  The  increase  in  the  number  of  train  miles  per  inhab- 
itant has  been  very  rapid,  rising  from  0.5  miles  in  i860  to  1.8  in  1870^ 
4.5  miles  in  1880  and  7.4  in  1890,  the  1892  figures  being  a  little  beloA\^ 
those  of  the  year  last  named.  The  following  statement  illustrates  the: 
extension  of  railway  facilities  for  i860  and  subsequent  periods  : 


Year. 


860 
865 
870 
875 
880 
885 


890 
891 
892 


Number  of 

Population  to 

Number  of  train 

train  miles  run 

each  mile  of  line. 

miles  run. 

per  head  of  pop- 
ulation. 

4>979 

174,249 

0-5 

2,861 

483,446 

1.2 

1,471 

901,139 

1.8 

1,360 

1,472,204 

2-5 

881 

3,239,462 

4-5 

546 

6,638,399 

7.2 

522 

6,479,265 

6.7 

498 

6,472,107 

6.4 

487 

6,689,313 

6.6 

491 

7,641,769 

7-3 

505 

8,008,826 

7-4 

524 

8,410,421 

7-5 

541 

8,356,096 

7.2 

*  Year  ending  June  30. 

COMPARISON    WITH    OTHER    COUNTRIES. 

Points  of  comparison  between  a  large  and  thinly  inhabited  country 
such  as  New  South  Wales  and  the  countries  of  the  old  world  are  diffi- 
cult to  obtain.  The  following  table,  however,  illustrates  the  population 
and  area  in  square  miles  of  territory  per  mile  of  line  open  in  the  princi- 
pal countries  of  the  world,  compiled  from  the  latest  returns.  It  will  be 
seen  that  New  South  Wales  comes  fairly  well  out  of  the  comparison : 


Countries. 

Australasia,  including  private  lines 

New  South  Wales 

Victoria 

South  Australia 

Queensland , 

West  Australia , 

Tasmania 

New  Zealand , 

America: 

Argentine  Republic 

Brazil 

Canada 

Chili 

United  States  of  America 

Europe : 

Austria-Hungary 

Belgium 

France 

Germany 

Gt.  Britain  and  Ireland 

Italy 

Netherlands 

Russia 

Asia: 

India  (British) 


Length  of 
railway. 
Miles. 

Population 

Area  per 

per    mile 
of  line. 

mile  of  line. 
Sq.  miles 

2,266 

521 

137 

2,903 

1,679 

2,320 

656 

399 

t 

226 

288 

1,6x6 

425 

359 

62 

2,013 

315 

52 

7,210 

567 

156 

5,546 

2,525 

570 

14,004 

1,801 

158,037 

370 

1,508 

396 

247 
163 
23 

15,854 
2,819 
22,911 
25,411 
20,073 
7,619 
1,632 

lf6i 

1.668 
1,948 
1,880 
4,061 
2,787 

15 
4 
9 
8 
6 

15 

2I,Il6 

4,540 

99 

16,09s 

13,068 

66 

258 


WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 


PRIVATE    LINES. 

Two  private  lines  of  railway,  45  and  36  miles  in  length  respectively, 
were  in  operation  during  i8gi,  connecting  the  important  towns  of 
Moama  and  Deniliquin,  and  Silverton  and  Broken  Hill.  The  first 
named  line  virtually  forms  an  extention  of  the  Victorian  railway  system 
from  Melbourn  to  Echuca.  The  following  figures  relate  only  to  lines 
under  government  control. 

The  capital  expended  on  all  lines  at  the  close  of  June,  1892,  amounted 
to  $166,563,040.  The  amounts  expended  on  lines  opened  during  each 
year  from  the  commencement  of  the  railway  system,  will  be  found  in 
the  following  table. 


Year. 


1855- 
i860. 
1865. 
1870. 
1875- 
1880 
i88s. 


Capital  ex- 
pended on  lines 
open. 


5'5.347 
1,422,672 

2,746,373 
5,566,092 

7,245,379 
11,778,819 
21,831,276 


Year. 


1886. 


*i89o. 
*i89i. 
♦1892 . 


Capital  ex- 
pended on  lines 
open. 


24,071,454 
26,532,122 
27,722,748 
29,839,167 
30,555,123 
31,768,617 
33,312,608 


*  Year  ended  June. 


LENGTH    OF    RAILWAY     LINES. 


The    colony   of   New  South  Wales  stands  in  a  good  position  among 
the  Australasian  colonies  in  regard  to  railway  development,   as  will  be 
seen  in  the  following  table,  which  shows  the  length  of  lines  open  for 
#    traffic  in  the  various  colonies  up  to  the  end  of  June,  1892: 


Lines  opened. 

Government. 
Miles. 

Private. 
Miles. 

Total. 
Miles. 

New  South  Wales 

2,185 
2,903 
2,320 
1,666 
203 

1,871 

81 

2,266 

Victoria           

2,903 
2,320 
1,679 
656 
425 
2,013 

South  Australia 

13 
142 

"Tasmania         

Total 

",525 

737 

g 

' 

RAILWAY    SYSTEMS    OF    THE    COLONY. 

The  railway  system  of  the  colony  is  divided  into  three  distinct 
branches,  each  representing  a  system  of  its  own. 

The  southern  system,  including  the  principal  line  in  the  colony, 
branches  at  Junee,  and  places  the  important  district  of  Riverina,  as  far 
as  the  town  of  Hay  in  one  direction,  and  Jerilderie  in  another,  in  direct 
communication  with  Sydney — from  which  they  are  distant  454  and  412 
miles  respectively.  From  several  other  points  of  the  line,  branches 
connecting  other  important  districts  with  the  metropolis  have  been 
opened  for  traffic,  or  are  in  course  of  construction.  At  Cootamundra  a 
line  has  been  laid  down,  which  now  reaches  Gundagai,  whilst  from 
Murrumburrah  a  line  has  been  constructed  which  connects  Blaney  on 
the  western  line  with  the  southern  and  western  systems  of  New  South 
Wales  railways.  This  practically  enables  direct  railway  communica- 
tion to  be  made  between  Melbourne  and  Bourke,  the  capital  so  to  speak 


RAIL  WAY  S  YSTEM  OF  NE  W  SO  UTH  WALES.  259 

of  Central  Australia  ;  and  the  branch  line  has  been  found  of  much  bene- 
fit in  allowing  the  direct  shipment  of  stock  from  the  pasture  grounds  to 
the  Victorian  markets.  Nearer  Sydney  the  important  town  of  Goul- 
bourn  will  be  the  center  of  a  system  of  branch  lines,  one  of  which,  that 
from  Goulbourn  to  Cooma,  is  already  built  and  brings  the  rich  pastoral 
district  of  Monaro  in  direct  communication  with  Sydney.  Further  west 
a  branch  line  from  Cootamundra  to  Temora  is  under  construction,  while 
a  branch  line  from  Culcairn  to  Corowa,  on  the  Murray,  has  just  been 
completed. 

The  southern  main  line  is  the  most  important  of  the  railway  lines  in 
the  colony,  as  it  passes  through  the  richest  and  most  thickly  populated 
districts,  and  places  the  four  great  capitals  of  Australia — Brisbane, 
Sydney,  Melbourne,  and  Adelaide — in  direct  communication  with  one 
another.  It  was  not  till  1883  that  this  line  was  actually  open  for  traffic, 
the  railway  bridge  across  the  Murray  river,  which  flows  between 
Wodonga,  the  Victorian  terminus,  and  Albury,  the  terminus  of  the  south- 
ern line  of  New  South  Wales,  having  been  completed  in  that  year.  The 
traffic  both  of  passengers  and  goods  on  the  southern  system  generally 
is  very  extensive,  and  arrangements  for  the  regular  carriage  of  mails 
between  the  two  great  cities  enable  letters  to  be  delivered  in  less  than 
twenty  hours.  Sleeping  cars  are  attached  to  these  trains,  on  the  New 
South  Wales  side,  and  the  comfort  of  travelers  is  assured  by  the  intro- 
duction of  the  most  modern  improvements  in  the  construction  and  fitting 
up  of  the  railway  carriages.  Since  the  completion  of  the  railway  from 
Melbourne  to  Adelaide,  a  distance  of  508^2  miles,  European  mails  are 
landed  at  the  latter  port  and  forwarded  overland  to  all  parts  of  Victoria, 
New  South  Wales,  and  Queensland. 

The  western  system  of  railways  extends  from  Sydney  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Blue  mountains,  of  which  it  reaches  the  upper  levels  a  little 
above  Emu  plains,  by  a  system  of  zig-zag  lines  which  enables  the  loco- 
motive to  drag  its  heavy  freight  up  the  abrupt  eastern  slope  of  the 
mountains.  The  line  runs  along  the  top  of  the  range,  until  it  descends 
into  the  valley  below  Mt.  Clarance,  by  another  and  more  important  zig- 
zag, the  construction  of  which  is  a  triumph  of  engineering  skill.  In  its 
course  between  these  two  zig-zags  the  line  passes  through  magnificent 
mountain  scenery  of  a  character  peculiar  to  this  part  of  the  world,  and 
none  the  less  remarkable.  Leaving  the  mountains  the  Western  railway, 
after  throwing  out  a  branch  from  Wallerawang  to  Mudgee,  enters  the 
Bathurst  Plains,  and  connects  the  rich  agricultural  lands  of  the  Bathurst, 
Orange,  and  Wellington  districts  with  the  metropolis.  Beyond  Dubbo 
it  enters  the  pastoral  country,  and  reaches  the  Darling  at  Bourke,  503 
miles  from  Sydney. 

At  Orange  a  branch  line,  twenty-two  miles  in  length,  connects  that 
town  with  Molong.  This  line  is  now  being  extended  to  Parkes  and 
Forbes,  and  the  extension  will  probably  be  opened  for  traffic  before 
June  1893.  Further  up,  at  Nyngan,  377  miles  from  Sydney,  a  branch 
line  has  been  opened,  connecting  the  important  mining  district  of  Cobar 
with  Sydney,  affording  at  the  same  time  rapid  and  sure  means  of  com- 
munication with  the  pastoral  country  of  which  Cobar  is  also  the  center. 
This  line,  it  is  expected  will  eventually  be  continued  as  far  as  Wilcan- 
nia,  on  the  Darling,  whence  it  may  be  extended  to  the  silver  fields  of 
Silverton  and  Broken  Hill.     The  Western  railway  system  also  includes 


26o  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

a  short  line  from  Blacktown  to  the  Hawkesbury,  via  the  towns  of 
Windsor  and  Richmond. 

The  northern  system  originally  had  its  terminus  at  Newcastle,  but  a 
connecting  line  between  Homebush  and  Waratah  has  been  constructed, 
which  makes  Sydney  the  head  of  the  whole  of  the  railway  systems  of 
the  colony.  The  Hawkesbury  river  has  been  crossed  by  an  iron  bridge 
2,896  feet  long,  in  seven  spans,  the  iron  superstructure  of  which  cost 
$1,635,000.  This  connecting  line  allows  direct  communication  between 
Adelaide,  Melbourne,  Sydney  and  Brisbane,  a  distance  from  end  to  end 
of  1,808  miles,  and  has  been  found  of  great  value  to  those  requiring  quick 
transit  and  for  the  carriage  of  postal  matter.  It  facilitates,  moreover, 
the  active  business  life  of  the  colonies,  and  will  be  of  national  import- 
ance, should  at  any  time  strategic  movements  require  to  be  made  in 
connection  with  military  operations. 

The  Northern  line  runs  via  Newcastle  and  the  great  coal  center, 
through  the  rich  agricultural  district  of  the  Hunter  valley,  to  the  import- 
ant part  of  the  colony  known  as  New  England  ;  passing  through  some 
of  the  largest  inland  towns  in  New  South  Wales,  such  as  Maitland,  until 
lately  the  fourth  town  in  the  colony  in  point  of  population,  being  sur- 
passed only  by  the  city  of  Newcastle  and  the  town  of  Parramatta  before 
Broken  Hill  attained  its  present  development.  The  country  traversed 
by  this  line  north  of  Newcastle  is  extremely  fertile.  As  the  line  ascends 
further  north,  it  passes  through  a  rich  pastoral  and  agricultural  territory, 
and  some  important  townships  are  reached,  viz.,  Tamworth,  Armidale, 
Glen  Innes,  and  Tenterfield,  and  eleven  miles  beyond  the  last  mentioned 
township  the  line  crosses  the  border  at  Wallangarra  or  Jennings  where 
a  junction  is  effected  with  the  Queensland  railways. 

The  Northern  system  also  comprises  a  branch  from  Werris  Creek  to 
Narrabri,  where  it  has  been  proposed  to  extend  as  far  as  Moree  in  the 
northwest,  and  to  Darling  in  the  west,  thus  placing  the  Namoi  and 
Gwydir  pastoral  districts  in  direct  communication  with  the  ports  of 
Newcastle  and  Sydney. 

In  the  New  England  district  a  line  has  been  long  projected  which 
would  connect  the  town  of  Glen  Innes  with  that  of  Inverell  on  one  side, 
and  with  the  city  of  Grafton,  on  the  Clarence,  on  the  other ;  an  alter- 
native line  has  been  surveyed  to  connect  the  Clarence  and  New  England 
districts,  a  proposed  junction  on  the  Northern  line  being  at  Llangothlin, 
but  both  this  route  and  the  one  proposed  from  Glen  Innes  to  Grafton, 
present  physical  difficulties  of  such  a  magnitude,  that  it  is  doubtful  if 
either  lines  will  be  carried  out  at  all  events  for  some  time  to  come. 

STEEP   GRADIENTS. 

The  New  South  Wales  railways  have  been  constructed  with  a  large 
proportion  of  steep  gradients.  There  are  629  miles  of  grades  varying 
frojn  one  in  thirty  to  one  in  seventy-five,  the  worst  of  these  being  on  the 
trunk  line,  and  so  situated  that  the  whole  volume  of  traffic  has  to  pass 
over  them.  The  railway  commissioners  in  their  last  annual  report  have 
drawn  a  comparison  between  the  New  South  Wales  lines  and  the  Alpine 
railways,  and  it  is  found  that  the  gradients  are  steeper  and  the  curves 
sharper  on  the  lines  of  this  colony  than  on  the  Alpine  lines.  In  order 
to  facilitate  the  working  of  the  traffic,  the  commissioners  introduced  last 
year  a  more  powerful  class  of  engines,  both  of  English  and  American 


RAIL  WA  V  S  VS  TEM  OF  NE  W  SO  UTH  WALES.  2  6 1 

manufacture,  which  have  materially  assisted  the  working  of  the  lines. 
There  are  now  completed  four  lines  along  the  suburban  section,  a  dis- 
tance of  eight  and  one-half  miles,  and  a  double  line  for  traffic  out  of 
Sydney  as  follows  :  South  Coast  line  to  Waterfall,  24  miles  ;  Main  South- 
ern line  to  Picton,  53  miles;  Main  Western  line  to  Penrith,  34  miles, 
and  North  Coast  line  to  Hornsby,  21    miles. 

CAPITAL    SPENT. 

The  capital  spent  on  lines  under  construction,  on  the  30th  of  June, 
1892,  was  $4,609,430,  which  includes  $1,226,130  for  the  Nyngan  to 
Cobar  line,  opened  for  traffic  on  the  ist  of  July,  1892. 

It  was  not  until  the  line  crossed  the  mountains  and  opened  up  the 
far  interior,  that  the  goods  traffic  became  the  principal  source  of  revenue 
of  the  railways.     This  change  began  to  take  place  in  1867. 

EXTENSIONS    IN    THE    INTERIOR. 

During  the  years  1884  and  1885  the  last  section  of  the  Main  West- 
ern line  extending  over  a  distance  of  over  112  miles,  as  far  as  Bourke 
was  opened,  and  the  line  branching  off  from  Wallerawang  completed  as 
far  as  Mudgee,  63  miles  being  open.  On  the  South  Western  railway 
the  branch  line  Narandera  to  Jerilderie  covering  a  distance  of  65  miles,, 
was  open  for  traffic.  All  of  these  extensions  run  through  very  sparsely 
settled  districts,  and  this  was  the  case  with  regard  to  nearly  the  whole  of 
the  other  172  miles  opened  during  the  two  years  mentioned.  This  total 
of  412  miles  opened  for  traffic  in  unproductive  country,  caused  a  serious 
falling  off  in  the  proportion  of  receipts  to  expenditure,  during  the  period 
ending  June,  1888,  the  net  revenue  yielding  less  than  3  per  cent  on  the 
total  expenditure. 

Since  then  the  returns  have  improved  step  by  step,  rising  in  the  year 
1 89 1  to  3.6  per  cent,  at  which  it  has  since  been  maintained.  In  the  rail- 
way report  of  1892  a  return  is  given,  comparing  the  net  results  of  lines 
which  are  not  at  present  paying  interest,  for  the  three  years  1887,  1890, 
and  1 89 1,  and  from  the  progress  which  the  latter  years  show  over  the 
former,  there  is  every  probability  that  in  the  near  future  the  lines  men- 
tioned will  earn  sufficient  to  pay  the  interest  on  their  cost.  The  fact 
that  the  lines  as  a  whole  have  not  returned  a  profit  should  occasion  no 
surprise,  as  the  statistics  of  railways  in  all  parts  of  the  world  show  that 
few  lines,  except  perhaps  suburban  ones,  return  anything  like  a  profit 
during  the  first  few  years  after  their  opening. 

In  England  a  period  of  seven  years  has  been  allowed  by  good 
authorities  for  a  line  to  develop  traffic  ;  and  if  such  is  the  fact  in  more 
densely  populated  countries,  whose  resources  are  more  developed  than 
is  the  case  in  New  South  Wales,  there  is  every  reason  to  be  satisfied 
with  the  fact  that  the  lines  of  this  colony  have  yielded  so  good  a  return 
as  they  have.  And  there  is  good  cause  to  hope  that  under  the  present 
administration  of  the  railways,  the  deficiency  will  soon  be  met,  as  the. 
returns  for  the  year  ended  June  30,  1892,  show  that  the  interest  on 
cost  of  construction  was  covered  all  but  0.24  per  cent. 


262  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

SC«EME    FOR    THE    CONSTRUCTION    OF    NEW    RAILWAYS. 

The  railway  commissioners  in  their  annual  report  for  1891  suggest 
a  plan  for  paying  for  new  lines  by  the  sale  of  lands.  They  recommend 
that  the  crown  lands  for  a  distance  of  ten  miles  each  side  the  proposed 
railway  should  be  set  aside  for  sale,  and  half  the  proceeds  of  the  land 
sold  to  be  credited  to  the  railway  capital ;  and  where  the  land  required, 
for  railway  construction  has  passed  into  the  hands  of  private  individuals, 
that  the  land  owners  should  combine  and  convey  the  necessary  land 
free  of  cost  to  the  government,  it  being  considered  that  the  owners  will 
be  fully  remunerated  for  the  gift  of  the  land  by  the  enhanced  value  of 
their  property,  through  direct  railway  communication  being  established 
with  the  other  parts  of  the  colony.  By  the  adoption  of  this  system  it  is 
believed  that  railways  in  light  undulating  country  could  be  constructed 
at  a  moderate  cost,  and  yield  a  fair  return  on  capital  from  the  com- 
mencement, especially  what  are  known  as  "  pioneer  railways,"  which 
could  be  constructed  at  an  average  of  $8,750  per  mile,  exclusive  of 
bridges. 

THE    BETTERMENT    SYSTEM. 

The  betterment  system  as  applied  to  railways,  was  first  introduced  in 
the  construction  of  the  Culcairn  to  Corowa  railway.  No  special  act  has 
been  passed  for  the  general  establishment  of  this  principle,  but  by  a 
proviso  in  a  clause  of  the  public  works  act  the  government  were 
empowered  to  apply  the  principle  to  all  railways  constructed  subse- 
quently to  the  date  of  the  passing  of  the  act.  In  estimating  the 
enhanced  value  of  the  land  adjoining  the  Culcairn  to  Corowa  railway 
line,  now  just  completed,  the  stations  were  assumed  to  be  10  miles 
apart,  the  betterment  area  having  a  five  miles  radius  from  each  station, 
and  the  land  in  the  vicinity  of  each  station  being  considered  to  have 
an  enhanced  value  of  25  per  cent,  graduating  to  5  per  cent  at  the 
limit  of  the  radius.  In  the  case  of  the  extension  of  the  railway  along 
the  southern  coast,  it  is  found  that  the  enhanced  value  does  not  reach 
so  high  a  percentage,  owing  to  the  facilities  which  exist  for  the  trans- 
port of  produce,  etc.,  by  water.  The  following  table  shows  the  cost  of 
construction  of  the  various  branches  of  the  railway  system  of  the  col- 
ony to  the  middle  of  the  year  1892. 

AVERAGE    PER    MILE. 

The  average  cost  for  the  whole  of  the  lines  is  calculated  to  be 
$64,870  per  mile,  including  all  charges,  except  for  rolling  stock,  machin- 
ery and  workshops,  a  figure  which,  considering  the  character  of  some 
parts  of  the  country  through  which  the  lines  have  been  carried,  and  the 
cost  of  labor,  which  is  considerably  greater  in  Australia  than  most  other 
countries,  is  by  no  means  a  high  one  : 


/RAILWAY  SYSTEM  OF  NEW  SOUTH  WALES. 
LINES    OPENED    FOR    TRAFFIC. 


263 


Darling  Harbour  Branch 

Sydney  to  Granville ... 

Haslems  Creek  Branch 

Granville    to  Wogonda 

Junee   to    Hay 

Narandera  to  Jerilderie 

Granville  to  Bourke 

Wallerawang  to  Mudgee 

Blacktown  to  Richmond  

Goulburn  to  Cooma 

Cootamundra  to  Gundagai 

Orange  to  Molong 

Murrumburrah  to  Blayney 

Sydney  to  Kiama 

Homebush  to  Waratah 

Newcastle  to  Wallangara 

Werris  Creek  to  Narrabri 

Bullock  Island  Branch 

Morpeth  Branch 

Hornsby  &  St.  Leonards 

Campbell  town  to  Camden  ^  Tram 
Kogarah  to  Sans  Souci      > 
Yass  Tramway  ;  Lines 


Miles. 


167 
65 
490 

85 
16 

34 

22 

106 

93^ 
391 
97 

4 
II 

v'A 

5 

3 

2185 


Total  Cost. 


$   1,785,585 

9,216,740 

32,295 

4,877,481 

4,750,790 

2,047,405 

26,7i5-,?oo 

4,905,210 

875,290 

7,016,100 

1,190,260 

1,346,645 

5,390,800 

9,727,955 

11,690,735 

24,653,275 

2,826,290 

426,746 

304,47s 

1,064,900 

194,635 

60,555 

135,205 

141,744,500 


Cost  per 
Mile. 


$1,785,585 
708,980 
64.590 
65,120 
28,445 
31,495 
54.520 
57,705 
54,705 
55,025 
35,000 
61,210 
50,855 
138,970 
135,730 
63,050 
29,135 
284,495 
76,120 
96,810 
25,950 
12,110 


64,870 


The  amount  expended  on  rolling  stock  to  the  period  named,  was 
$20,236,580;  for  machinery,  $1,375,445;  workshops,  $3,159,350  ;  and 
furniture,  $47,165,  or  $24,818,540.  This  makes  the  total  cost  of  all 
lines  open  for  traffic,  $166,563,040,  or  an  average  on  all  charges,  of 
$76,230  per  mile. 

The  cost  of  railway  construction  in  some  of  the  principal  countries 
of  the  world  for  which  figures  are  available,  is  given  hereunder  :  The 
figures  include  the  whole  expense  of  equipping  the  lines  for  traffic,  and 
are  brought  down  to  the  latest  dates  available  :  United  Kingdom, 
$219,775  per  mile  ;  United  States,  $61,940  ;  New  South  Wales,  $76,230. 

EARNINGS    AND    WORKING    EXPENSES. 

The  gross  amount  of  revenue  derived  from  all  sources  during  the 
year  ended  June  30,  1892,  was  $15,536,480,  a  larger  sum  than  was 
attained  in  any  previous  year.  The  cost  of  working  the  railways 
reached  $9,571,260,  and  the  net  earnings  were  $5,965,220,  or  38.4  per 
cent  of  the  total  earnings,  as  against  33.3  per  cent  when  the  commis- 
sioners took  office. 

In  the  year  i860  the  earnings  from  passenger  traffic  largely  exceeded 
those  from  goods,  but  after  that  year  the  proportion  declined,  reaching 
the  minimum  in  1875.  This  falling  off  was  almost  entirely  due  to  the 
considerable  extension  of  the  main  line  through  pastoral  country,  thinly 
populated  but  well  stocked  with  sheep  and  cattle,  and  consequently 
furnishing  the  railway  with  large  quantities  of  produce  for  carriage  to 
the  seaboard.  Since  1880,  however,  the  percentage  of  receipts  from 
passengers  has  advanced,  and  now  constitutes  about  38.3  per  cent  of 
the  total  revenue,  figures  which  compare  not  unfavorably  with  those 
obtained  on  the  English  lines  from  the  same  source — 44  per  cent. 

The  net  revenue  for  the  year  which  expired  on  the  30th  of  June,  1892, 
was  $5,965,220,  while  the  total  amount  of  capital  expended  on  lines  in 


264  WORLD'S  RAILWAY  COMMERCE  CONGRESS. 

operation  to  the  same  period,  was  $166,563,040.  The  net  return  on  the 
capital  expended  equaled  3.581  per  cent,  which,  with  the  exception  of 
that  realized  in  1891,  is  the  most  satisfactory  return  obtained  since  1884, 
and  as  will  hereafter  appear  only  0.24  per  cent  below  the  average 
interest  payable  on  all  outstanding  loans  of  the  public  debt. 

Under  the  control  of  the  commissioners  the  net  return  per  train  mile 
has  increased  from  55  cents  to  68  cents,  or  25.2  per  cent,  while  per  mile 
of  line  open  for  traffic  the  advance  has  been  from  $1,870  to  $2,735,  o^ 
46.3  per  cent. 

TRAFFIC,    MANAGEMENT,  ETC. 

The  number  of  journeys  made  by  each  person  in  the  colony,  now 
averages  17.1  per  annum,  as  against  7.5  in  1880,  and  1.6  in  1870.  The 
increase  has  been  exceedingly  rapid  as  well  as  fairly  uniform.  The 
average  immber  of  journeys  performed  by  inhabitants  of  the  United 
Kingdom  is  22.4,  which  largely  exceeds  that  of  any  other  population. 
With  this  exception,  railway  travelling  is  more  common  in  Victoria, 
South  Australia  and  New  South  Wales  than  in  any  other  country. 

The  traffic  on  the  suburban  lines,  which  include  only  distances  within 
twenty  miles  of  Sydney  and  Newcastle,  Liverpool  and  Morpeth  included, 
has  enormously  increased  of  late  years.  Total  passenger  journeys  for 
1892  being  16,966,855. 

The  average  receipts  from  passenger  traffic  per  head  of  population 
have  very  rapidly  advanced  and  for  1892  stood  at  $6.19,  as  against  $2.66 
in  1880,  and  $1.18  in  1870.  This  is  not  due,  as  might  be  supposed  to 
the  increasing  distance  travelled  by  passengers,  so  much  as  to  the  fact 
that  the  railway  mileage  has  increased  at  a  greater  rate  than  the  popu- 
lation, enabling  the  public  to  indulge  in  a  larger  measure  of  railway 
travelling,  in  accordance  with  the  well  established  rule  that  the  more 
facilities  for  travelling  are  extended  the  greater  will  the  traffic  be.  In 
this  connection  it  may  be  interesting  to  note  that  the  fares  charged  on 
the  suburban  lines  over  which  the  majority  of  passengers  travel  are  very 
much  less  for  both  classes  of  travellers  than  the  English  rates  although 
the  cost  of  working  is  very  much  higher. 

The  weight  of  goods  carried  per  head  of  population  in  New  South 
Wales  compares  favorably  with  that  of  many  countries  where  railways 
have  been  long  established.  The  largest  amount  of  tonnage  per  inhab- 
itant is  in  Scotland,  where  it  averages  10.4,  the  lowest  European  coun- 
tries are  Italy,  Russia,  and  Austria-Hungary  with  only  0.5. 

The  traffic  business  has  expanded  to  a  very  great  extent  in  recent 
years.  It  is  very  satisfactory  to  note  that  although  all  the  main  trunk 
lines  have  been  constructed  for  several  years  past  the  volume  of  goods 
carried  is  still  increasing  faster  than  the  population. 

The  charge  per  ton  per  mile  was  in  1872  $0.07,  and  in  the  year  1891 
had  fallen  to  $0.03.  Some  of  the  decrease  however  is  more  apparent 
than  real,  inasmuch  as  it  represents  a  more  extensive  development  of 
the  mineral  trade  than  of  the  carriage  of  general  merchandise.  The 
revenue  from  goods  traffic  per  inhabitant  rose  rapidly  from  the  opening 
of  the  lines  until  the  year  1883,  when  it  stood  at  $7.58,  at  which  figure 
it  remained  in  1884  also.  The  unfavorable  seasons  experienced  during 
the  subsequent  years  greatly  affected  the  traffic,  which  in  1888  had 
fallen  to  $6.75  per  inhabitant.     Since  that  year  there  has  been  a  steady 


RAILWA  Y  SYSTEM  OF  NEW  SOUTH  WALES.  265 

increase,  and  in  1892  the  amount  stood  at  $8.22 — the  highest  figures 
yet  attained. 

The  rolling  stock  of  the  New  South  Wales  railways  on  the  30th  of 
June,  1892,  consisted  of  489  locomotives,  1054  coaching  stock,  and 
10,455  goods  vehicles,  making  a  total  of  11,998  stock,  and  showing  an 
increase  of  50  locomotives,  31  coaching  stock  and  515  goods  vehicles 
over  the  stock  of  the  previous  year.  The  number  of  engine  miles  run 
was  12,362,105,  while  the  train  miles  numbered  only  8,356,096. 

There  were  altogether  10,638  persons  employed  by  the  railway 
department,  of  which  number  1,602  comprised  the  salaried  staff,  and 
9,036  were  on  wages. 

The  management  of  the  state  railways  in  1888  was  transferred  to 
the  department  of  the  colonial  treasurer,  and  the  actual  administration 
of  the  railways  was  entrusted  to  three  commissioners,  to  whom  were 
given  very  extensive  powers,  amounting  in  fact  to  almost  independent 
control. 


[TJiriVBRSITT] 


Recent  Publications 

OF   THE 

RAILWAY  AGE  AND  NORTHWESTERN   RAILROADER. 


Compound  Locomotives.    Second  Edition,    By  A.  T.  Woods.    Revised 

and  Enlarged  by  D.  L.  Barnes.    Cloth.    Price,  postpaid . ^3.00 

The  first  edition  of  this  book  by  Prof.  Woods  was  received  with  the  greatest 
favor  by  all  those  seeking  information  in  regard  to  compound  locomotives.  The 
present  edition,  which  is  almost  twice  as  large  as  the  first,  has  been  undertaken 
by  Mr.  Barnes  with  a  view  to  bringing  the  work  up  to  date.  It  is,  by  reason 
of  the  advance  made  in  compound  locomotive  construction  since  the  first  edition 
was  issued,  therefore,  a  practically  new  book,  and  should  be  read  by  every  rail- 
road man  who  desires  a  thorough  or  general  knowledge  of  the  compound  loco- 
motive and  the  results  obtained  from  its  use. 

The  Biographical  Directory  of  Railway  Officials  of  America- 
Edition  of  1893.     420  pp.     Cloth.     Price,  postpaid ^^3.00 

This  is  an  invaluable  book  of  reference  for  railroad  men,  libraries,  news- 
papers, etc.  It  gives  concisely  the  important  facts  in  the  careers  of  four 
thousand  railway  officials. 

"//  is  one  of  the  most  useful  railway  reference  books  printed,  and  the  fullness 
of  its  information,  coupled  with  its  brevity,  makes  its  4/8  pages  as  compact  in 
information   and  as   valuable  in   its  way  as    Webster's  Dictionary y  —  Buffalo 

Express. 

"  The  whole  is  compactly  arranged  and  excellently  printed,  making  a  con- 
venient and  useful  book  of  referenced  —  The  Railroad  Gazette. 

"  The  scheme  is  a  good  one  and  is  well  carried  out  in  the  manner  of  presen- 
tation.'''' —  Engineering  News. 

"  To  the  general  public  a  book  such  as  this  conveys  a  good  idea  of  the  vastness 
of  the  railroad  business  in  the  United  States,  which  requires  so  many  principal 
officers  to  look  after  it.  It  is  well  printed,  and  a  great  deal  of  information  in 
regard  to  each  person  is  given  in  the  most  concise  manner  possible. '^  —  1  he  Iron 
Age. 

The  Protection  of  Railroad  Interests.     By  James  F.  How,  Vice- 
President  of  the  Wabash  Railroad.     Pamphlet.     Price,  postpaid $  .25 

This  pamphlet  should  be  read  by  everyone  interested  in  the  welfare  of 
American  Railways.  It  is  brief,  pointed,  suggestive,  and  an  earnest  appeal  to 
railway  managers  to  stand  together  against  demagogic  encroachments  upon  the 
rights  of  railway  property. 

THE  RAILWAY  AGE  AND  NORTHWESTERN  RAILROADER, 
1452-1456  monadnock  block, 

Chicago. 


Recent  Publications 


RAILWAY  AGE  AND    NORTHWESTERN   RAILROADER. 


The    Interstate   Commerce    Act    and    the    Car    Coupler    Law. 

Pamphlet.      Price,    postpaid $  .25 

This  pamphlet  contains  the  full  act  to  regulate  commerce,  as  amended  to 
date,  and  of  the  supplementary  act  relating  to  the  testimony  of  witnesses  before 
the  inter-state  commerce  commission,  together  with  the  full  text  of  the  "  Safety 
Equipment  Law,"  relating  to  the  compulsory  application  of  automatic  car- 
couplers  and  air-brakes.  The  work  is  thoroughly  indexed  and  the  arrangement 
of  the  side  heads  renders  it  exceptionally  convenient  for  ready  reference. 

The  Railway  Age  and  Northwestern  Railroader.  A  weekly 
journal  of  railway  transportation,  equipment,  operation  and 
finance.     Price  per  annum,  postage  free $4.00 

This  journal  stands  at  the  head  of  its  class.  It  has  the  largest  circulation 
of  any  weekly  railroad  paper  published  in  the  world.  It  is  the  only  paper  that 
covers  the  whole  field  of  railway  affairs  comprehensively.  It  gives  every  week 
the  fullest  information  concerning  whatever  is  newest  in  railway  politics,  railway 
engineering,  railway  mechanics,  railway  law,  railway  construction,  railway 
operation,  railway  management,  railway  surgery,  and  railway  finance.  Sample 
copy  free. 

The  Rights  and  Wrongs  of  the  Railway   Question.     Pamphlet. 

Price,  postpaid $  .25 

This  is  a  collection  of  articles  reprinted  from  the  Railway  Age  and  North- 
western Railroader,  giving  the  facts  of  the  railway  problem  as  it  interests  the 
public.  The  object  of  this  publication  is  to  give  these  facts  in  a  form  pleasant 
to  read  and  easy  to  digest.  It  is  replete  with  most  valuable  information  for  any 
one  interested  in  the  railVay  question. 

THE  RAILWAY  AGE  AND  NORTHWESTERN  RAILROADER, 
1452-1456  monadnock  block, 

Chicago. 


•"-'"V€4 


RETURN     CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT    2  4  B  6  :J 

TO-— #^      202  Main  Library 

LOAN  PERIOD  1 
HOME  USE 

2                             3 

4 

5                               6 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

Renewals  and  Recharges  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  the  due  date. 

Books  may  be  Renewed  by  calling     642-3405. 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 

ml    or  1^'07 

JUL  z  5  ' 

»v/» 

mis  JUL  0  7 1987 

0CT0^1992 

AOTODISCOCTOZ'Sl 

FORM  NO.  DD6, 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERKELEY 
BERKELEY,  CA  94720 


U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


BDD30nM01 


